Brauer’s Sylphrena

“Syl”

Syl was born on April 12, 2022, and was bred by Don Brauer in Phoenix, AZ. Her parents are The Wolf Crossing’s Rogue (at Brauer) and Soto’s Rayne (at Brauer). Syl was born to a litter of five puppies (2 females, 3 males), and was the only Arctic Type puppy in her litter. She came home with us at 5.5 weeks of age, so that we could begin bonding with her and continue the socialization that her breeder had already started with her as a baby. This socialization window lasts between 4-8 weeks of age for high content wolfdogs, which is why it’s so important that they go home at an early age. Syl is a 95%+ high content wolfdog, like her parents.

Syl was a playful but spicy puppy for the first six months of her life. She had big feelings about how and when she would interact with people and made it very clear that everything had to be on her terms. While this made certain aspects of raising her difficult in those early months, we worked a LOT on cooperative care protocol with her, as well as obedience training and impulse control exercises, which went a long way towards forming a cooperative and trusting relationship with her. Around 6 months of age, all that work on building trust with her paid off and she became extremely affectionate and sweet. We’re now able to handle her with ease, to the point where Dustin can pick her up and she just dangles and gives kisses, tail wagging like crazy. She is VERY cuddly and just wants to be in our lap getting snuggles and belly rubs, and she does the cutest dance when she gets butt scratches! She’s a joy to have as a part of our family and we’ve loved her sweet personality and silly antics. Her nickname is our “Toasted Marshmallow Girl” because of how sweet and squishable she is!

Syl is very food motivated and has absolutely loved training and learning since she was a baby. She is SMART and picks things up quickly, needing very little repetition to retain the tricks and cues she has learned, even months later. She spent her first 6-ish months as an indoor dog but transitioned to being an outside dog when a friend moved in with us in the fall of 2022 and brought their own group of dogs. Syl showed signs of same-sex aggression from a relatively young age (around 10-12 months), so we have kept her separated from other females since just before her first birthday. She does very well with intact males and is very submissive to them. She has been best buddies with Frank, our 53% mid content male wolfdog, for about 2 years now. Syl is still fully crate trained, however, and is able to come inside the house for couch cuddles or crating during bad weather. Syl has a moderate prey drive. She will definitely pursue small prey if she has the opportunity, but she doesn’t obsess over prey animals if they are near but out of reach. We do not allow her to have contact with our indoor cat, Snow, but we’re able to easily walk Syl on leash past Snow without any issues.

Due to Syl’s feisty puppyhood, we didn’t push her very hard when it came to taking her out in public, so she is uncertain around strangers in public. While she is fully leash trained and she rides excellently in the car, we prefer not to take her to crowded public places, for her own comfort. She has done very well with meeting strangers at our home, however, and will come up to say hi and sit for treats and give kisses. She tries very hard when we ask her to do something outside of her comfort zone, which I really like about her personality. She is excellent at the vet and is very calm and easy to handle for her annual wellness exams. She’s also very easy to groom - she will literally fall asleep in the bathtub! We are able to bathe and blow dry her, as well as clean her ears and trim her claws, with no fuss.

Syl does not resource guard her kibble or toys from us, but we don’t push her boundaries with raw food, since that is more of an infrequent treat for our wolfdogs and they view it as a very high value resource. She will tell Frank off if he tries to come steal her food, but they’ve never done more than snark at each other if he tries to sneak her meals out from under her nose. Neither Frank or Syl try to cache food or toys, so we haven’t had to deal with Syl guarding any hidden hoards.

During breeding season, Syl remains extremely sweet and cuddly, showing zero signs of aggression towards us at all. She just wants to be held and loved on even more than usual during that time of year! She has remained consistent in temperament throughout the year, with zero signs of “Winter Wolf Syndrome” type behaviors.

Syl is a rather small high content female, standing at about 27 inches tall and weighing around 70 lbs.