Firinian Wolfdogs

If I Fire ever tells you to come see their dog, I'm telling you now, it's a wolf. Oh, they'll tell you that it's part dog and part wolf, and that it 'just has a few wolfy qualities'. But don't let that fool you.

If you know a Fire, and they tell you have a couple dogs, chances are that they are Firinian Wolf dogs. The hybrid breed is particularly popular among Fires, for a large amount of reasons. After many years of the breed being propagated by backyard breeders looking to get in on a trend, the Firen government stepped in. Now, only licensed, regulated, and inspected breeders are allowed to breed the hybrid. And an emphasis has been in place to improve the hybrid species by properly socializing pups. DNA tests are required for every Wolfdog sold to guarantee the percentage of wolf in the dogs. These tests are done independently, and are available to be seen in a public database. Phenotyping has long been considered obsolete compared to DNA tests, as appearance can be misleading. There are laws across Firina on the amount of space required to house each level of Wolfdog, and it is illegal to sell someone a high or mid-content Wolfdog if they lack the proper requirements.

Lower content wolf-dogs are preferred by those who want to have a dog with some wolf characteristics, while still being able to have the dog live in their house without having to purchase an acre of land to build an enclosure. Which is the vast majority of Fires.

Plenty of speculation goes on about what attracts Fires so much to the wolf-dog, despite the fact that the hybrids main issue behaviours are also its main features that distinguish it from regular dogs. Maybe it's just the aesthetic. Or maybe the Fire Elementals see some kinship in an animal partly driven by firm instinct, that's destructive when it's bored, and is significantly hard to train following someone else's rules.

Regardless, the hybrid doesn't gain the same reputation it does elsewhere in the world among Fires probably because Fires place a lot less emphasis on their physical belongings. The wolf-dog is just as likely to destroy the couch as its owner in Firina. Not to mention, its heavy raw diet of meat is pretty much the exact same as what a Fire already has in the house. Another plus to the equation is that Firinian wolves aren't very flighty with Fires as they were with humans. Many have adapted to the existence of the Fires over the years. Some suspect that this has to do with the effect of Fire magic on the region. For those who are at least partly Fire Elementals, this recognition of magic seems to provide a sense of familiarity to the wolf part of the dog. This does mean though that they are extremely flighty around Earth Elementals.

For those with land, and money, higher content Wolfdogs are usually bought simply because they can. And as long as you're a Fire Elemental, these dogs are still rather snugly. But become much more traditionally flighty and defensive towards other Elementals.

Firinian Wolfdogs are exported, usually those of low wolf content that have few wolf characteristics. The legality of these pets varies outside Firina, often by province, or even city.

Scientific Name

Canis lupus x Canis familiaris