Want to Understand Dogs? Start With the Wolf.

Guys, my name is Cesar Millan, and I am in heaven. Literally in heaven. This is called Wolf Connection. I came so I can feed my spirit and, of course, always practice my instincts and give my heart away. I can't wait for you guys to come and visit this place. It's called Wolf Connection Preservation and Conservation of Wolves. Learn more about it. What calls you? Yeah, I'm a psychologist by training. OK, by humans? Yeah, human psychologist. I was in private practice in Seattle. I wasn't that interested in doing private practice, but landed there. And I kept seeing this ad in psychology today for wolf therapy. I was like, he gets to do wolf therapy for a job. And so the pictures of the wolves that were here were in that ad. And so they called me. And just one thing led to another. So it's been a whole new training, humbling, painful at times. But it's always like a new challenge and adventure. When it comes to a wolf, they behave different than when they behave with a dog. Because, you know, people humanize as a dog. And so they want to do ears, eyes, nose, versus nose, eyes, ears. So a wolf, nose, eyes, ears. But everybody knows the descendant of the wolf is a dog. But it's almost like they forget. And they go back, oh my gosh! They go into sound and approach. Which, as you know, it creates excitement. It means there's respect. That's what it means. And so that's why a lot of aggression in dogs. That's why a lot of fear in dogs. That's why a lot of anxiety in dogs. Because they don't share, the human doesn't share this silence, calmness, respect. Let's go for a, if you let me meet the guys. Whoever you want me to meet. Now talk about silence. Look at right there. Look, this is distance. This is social distance right here. You know, meeting, this is the meeting. This is meeting the first wolf. Because from him, he can send the signals to the rest of the wolves. It's like the same thing when you are in a neighborhood. The first dog you meet is gonna tell the other dogs, you know, there is a new human in the neighborhood. And based on your silence and your calmness and your knowledge, they're going to treat you. So silence is a very powerful tool. And then distance, right? Because you're in their home and by you understanding and because you guys were in the back and the wolf knows her, doesn't know me, right? So when I felt the curiosity, I was like, okay, that's her, but who's him? And I stopped, that is showing respect, right? It's the same. I treat a dog the way I would treat a wolf, right? It's just dogs are so desensitized of trusting their instincts because humans are constantly telling them, be excited, be excited, be excited, be friendly, be friendly, be friendly. You know, instead of the human doing what triggers that. Right. You know, they want now you be friendly. Yeah. Even if the human is dumb, right? Or disrespectful, because that end up being dumb. That's a dumb behavior. Yeah. And then the pacing. Well, basically he wants to do something. You see, you know, or we get closer or we offer something. It's not, it's not, you know, too far to go. So the curiosity and because he can move towards, you know, what he's curious, you know, or he can walk away from what he's curious. So they go into this pacing, which happens to dogs too. Yeah. We usually refer to it as like how they're soothing themselves or feel good. Some people call it anxiety. In cages. Yeah. They do that in cages. Exactly. They wouldn't do that in the wild. Yeah, no. But many of them are just so comfortable with people and used to it that they don't pace. And some of them would go hide behind a bush instead of pace. It's just whatever is most comfortable for them. And then the guys in the back. Oh my God. This is like a, like, it's like a, like a toy store. Well, there's 47 of them right now. How did you end up with so many? The people actually wanted to have like pets or something. Most of them. Really? Yeah. And you know, you mentioned the care they need earlier with walking, but also their pack animals. And with dogs, we've. Well, the humans become the pack. Exactly. And that can be the case with wolves, but then like the humans go to work and school and they like, our sense is just like in their bones, they're not meant to live like that. So they jump through a window, they jump a fence and they're not being aggressive. They're just trying to find their pack. That's right. So that's how most of them end up in trouble from escaping, not by doing anything harmful to humans, just by escaping. You know, in Mexico, the people, what they end up getting is lions and tigers, right? Which is another, another big, you know, wrongdoing, right? Cause this, they're, they're not domesticated. And if you want them to be domesticated, you better find an activity that gets them tired before they come into your house and just spend time inside this wall. Right. Thing that we call home. Cause home for them is over there, over there, you know, no walls. So you'll see a variety of looks are, from what we know also the, we have several wolves that are black and you'll see their coats start to fade out to brown or gray. So it doesn't make sense in the wild to be one color, but that black coloring for wolves is a recessive gene from when dogs and wolves bred. But now there are many wolves in the wild who have black coats. When Teo founded Wolf Connection, he basically accidentally ended up with a wolf dog pup that his neighbor wasn't able to care for. And then he was doing anti-bullying work with youth. And you know how the story goes. He ended up, he wasn't really getting through to them. And he found 16 wolves and wolf dogs that were being kept at a pit bull rescue. Anyway, that's how Wolf Connection started. He took some of the youth out there. So the kids were not getting it? They were not listening? Yeah, they weren't engaged. Yeah, so was the human. And then this one young woman, like had been bit several times by a German shepherd and met the wolves and was just on the ground, like connecting. And so, you know, the wolves bring pure authenticity. You know, there's no training that they're gonna come up to you and make you feel better. So that connection that happens, it just hits people in a different way. The intensity of the eyes is quite incredible. Intense versus a dog. Yeah, yeah. Incredible. It's like a horse alertness, you know, like when you ride a really like sensitive horse. Yeah. They're very sensitive. Very sensitive. They haven't had as much human conditioning and putting our stuff on them. Because you'll see her eyes. You'll see her eyes, which are the giveaway. But she has some dog and wolf. She's a wolf dog. And she's actually from Mexico. Yeah, she's the only one. Do y'all wanna go in an enclosure? Yes, of course. Before they eat? Okay, so we'll go in with him and Cody. Yes, yes, yes, yes. This is my second time going into meet wolves. Many, many years ago, many years ago, I went into an enclosure with wolves. I have worked with hybrids. Yeah, actually the king of Malaysia sent two hybrids. Oh, okay. They were killing all the cats in the palace. And so that was the job. It was to stop the hunting. And we did. What a welcome. See, she's not a dog. That's the boy over there? The white one? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. That's part of the magic here, right? We could never ask them to welcome like that. They just, they do what they're called to do. Oh, I see the eyes now. She's like, I heard you said I was a dog. I'm showing you. Hey, mama. Hi. Wow. Please, this is a moment. Please videotape this moment as much as you can. That was it. You say not to pet on the head, but you always put your head under people's hands. Wow. And you're, you know, you're welcome to touch her if you'd like. Yeah, they do eye contact. And you know, like you said, they're very instinctual. So they, the ones that are comfortable with people pick up on how people are pretty quickly. Yeah, pretty quickly. And I feel like some of them that are really confident, they're very forgiving of however people show up because they're so confident in themselves that they don't really care what's going on with the people. And going for a walk with this guy says you never done it? Like a walk, a dog walk? Well, they both go on leash. So we don't walk with most of them off leash just because of the liability if they were, she's a hunter. So that's how she gotten herself in some trouble, but I can bring a three-year-old in here with her in a dress and she'll have a great time. But she'll hunt, you know, other little critters. She was getting into it with some chickens and goats in Mexico. Bodhi's a little bit more shy, you can see, but still curious. Yeah, but sensitive. Yeah, very sensitive. Thank you. Ooh, that's big trust. They get a raw meat plant in the morning. It's a brand that gives meat to wolves. So there's organs in there and everything. And then in the evening, they get a high quality kibble. Just helps us round out, get more calories and save some money. The fur is much thicker. Yeah, and you'll see like Bodhi usually looks about twice that size, but he's lost his entire undercoat. And Hema has more dog in her, so her coat's a little more blended. But he lost. But he's a pure bred wolf. He's what we would call high content. High content. I think he's about 80%. Some of them we've had testing done. That's a dog thingy. You're welcome, yeah. That's a dog thingy. But Bodhi, because I'm bonded with him, he loves his belly rubbed. But if he's not, he doesn't know you yet, she's like, dog's got that from wolves. Wolves like their bellies rubbed too. If they know you. Or if they're comfortable. I'm so comfortable. This is Avsoon and Rene. Hi. Rene? Avsoon. Yeah, nice to meet you. What's your background? Armenian? I'm Persian. Persian, all right. Hi guys. Persian girl in the wolf world. Rene, nice to meet you. Yes, no, thank you. I used to be desert wolves. Yeah, yeah, that's right. You know what I mean? So she's one of our most social with humans. So a lot of times, even the young people. That's because she's Mexican. That's right. You know, we Mexican people are very friendly people. We feed people. It's true, yeah. Look at with her. Yeah, he came up pretty close. So we, because we come in here to visit Hema, like we'll bring groups of people and he usually hides, but he keeps getting closer and closer and that's often how they acclimate. We never force them. Oh, yeah. But because they love smell so much, humans are very enriching. Yeah, that's right. All our smells and. That's why I didn't put the odor in today. I mean, it's a good practice. Ooh. Do you see those eyes? Oh, yes. I see. My favorite thing to do is to see them. Yeah, you know, I enjoy the touch part of it, but I love to watch them. Yeah, yeah. In Mexico, I grew up with my grandfather and that's practically what we did. We grew up in a situation like this, a farm, far away from the city. There was a lot of watching. Like people do bird watching, people should do dog watching. But dog people don't watch, they touch. You see it? So they don't get to see the eyes. They don't get to see the ears. They don't get to see the nose. They don't get to see, you know, just without the touch. We have some wolves here that we've never touched and we may never. They don't allow us. And some of them are the ones- Because they run away? Or because they're forward? Some of them were bottle fed by humans and so they have the connection. Then we have some that I think for generations didn't have human contact. Like we have three sisters who are ones that people get the most like spiritual medicine from just by being around them. No touch. So that's a big part of the work that we do. And it helps us think of human boundaries. We don't always have to be touching each other and talking to each other. There's Asma out. And Luna. Wow, the white one is fine. The other one looks like a husky, like a malamute. Yeah. Look at this one. It looks like a cheper. Cheper coyote type. This one? Very skinny, yeah. Yeah. So Luna, the one that is mixed with husky. Yeah. And these are two females together. But she's, we call her one of our pack nannies. She can put a pure wolf on their back with a look. And so she just has this, we say the nannies, they're very empathic. So they're a little different with every animal. She's like a coyote. Yes. We don't think Wander has any coyote in her, but she definitely talks like a coyote. Is she right? Yeah. We could go in either one of these enclosures if you'd like. Gemma was in charge of the whole howling now. Yeah, Gemma started that howl for sure. Yeah. So most of them howl. We have some that chuff and bark and make these other fun noises. And we do have a couple, at least one coyote mix. So she makes a lot of vocalization. Wolf and dog, we think. A coyote? That might be the difference between the rest of the wolves in the picture, I think. Yeah. How do you do the assessment and evaluation and they're compatible? What are? Yeah, so typically. In a crate? You put them in a crate or? Well, usually like for the ones that we can put on leash, we'll like walk them together. Okay. Or we'll take, like if we have one who doesn't go on leash, we'll take the other one up to the fence. Yeah, yeah. And then you see right away. Then you see. I mean, the good thing, and usually the best sign is kind of they ignore each other. Okay, avoidance. Like not that they're overly excited, but there's kind of a nonchalant attitude. And it's easier for the ones that we know really well and like are more hands-on with. And some of them, you just learn they get along with most. And then you have ones that are much more particular. So it's a process. We're on the conservative side. That's why you'll see some living alone because we just don't want to put them in a bad situation. But I have to say, we have like rarely had it not work out with the pairing. We had this guy who's on my shirt and Willow, our icon. We tried them. I said they were both too good looking. It did not work. Fortunately, we could touch both of them and we were able to separate them. Yeah, that's what I always tell people. Get one that's a little stronger than the other. It's like when you have a cat, right? If a cat controls a dog, you're good. And then you see the difference. We're in here with her and she's not vocalizing at all. They took over my house. Yeah, definitely Gemma is the host, right? She's the first enclosure, yeah. A lot of times people find this process boring because everybody wants to pet and you have to earn that. And that's where it's good for kids because they have to practice patience, calmness, just knowing, right? You can't practice love and excitement. That's what most people want. I always want to love a wolf, but if the wolf is not close by, you can't practice that activity. But what activity can a kid practice? Well, you can practice patience. You can practice calmness. They can practice visualization. I visualize that one day that particular wolf is gonna come near me and you have to be consistent with that and calm and offer your silence, your calmness, your confidence. If you offer food, you're gonna accelerate the process, but when you don't, it's just a matter of time. So this is what I would do. If I'm bored or frustrated one day with my life and I'm not doing anything, I will come and stay here just so I can give back my patience, just so I can gain their trust. And then my boredom, my frustration, my whatever I'm dealing in that moment in my life will go away. Playful, but unsure. He's showing us his stick. He wants to play, but he's not sure. See? So he's a little bit confused. That's what the black one is doing, just to be calm instead of going behind. That, to me, is a beautiful gift. It's a beautiful behavior, right? Because he stopped going away from us and he's studying us. So internally, that's what I'm rewarding. Oh my God, look at how tall this wolf is. No, and we'll get some fur for you to smell. It's delicious. So Bella, the white one, she came with her two sisters, Annie and Charlie. And so I've known them almost 11 years and we don't touch them. But they, I like to say they run the place. They don't let us. And she'll touch us. See? Oh, okay. She won't let us touch her. So that's her comfort. Do some wolves have like a dark eyes or they all have this beautiful honey looking? Most, I call them eyes of honey or gold. Most of them, yes. Sometimes when they age, they get more brown. That will be a good walk or a good bike run without. With Mav, absolutely. With the long legs or rollerblading. Oh my God, I still have a scar on my arm from doing that with my dog when I was a teenager. Oh my God, my favorite. It's my favorite to rollerblade with the pack. Yeah. Where are we going? We'll walk up this way a bit. They haven't caught up to us. Who, the feeding? We're feeding yet. What do you guys feed? Kibbles or like real meat? In the morning, it's raw meat. It's a raw meat blend. Organ meat and then in the evening they get kibble. Okay. Any kind of kibble? Any brand you like? We use, what's it called? Missouri. Missouri, that's familiar. It's like a zoo. Ah, yeah. It's a grade. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what we get for my emu, the brand or our fish. Now you have all kinds of animals, right? Yes, I do. It's not far from here, so. Yeah, we'd love to visit. If you're ever bored. We'd love to visit. Or nothing to do, which is. So that's the carrier? This is one of our evacuation trailers. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. We hope not to have to use it, but. Have you ever? We haven't had to evac. We've been, we started training last summer. Have you had to evac where you're at? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. We just put everybody in a horse trailer. Yeah. Everybody goes in it. Wow. This is pretty amazing one. It's double, right? Yeah. So we have another one being built. I mean, obviously it's not a place they can, it just gets us off the property. Yeah, that's it. But that's the most important thing. Yeah, that's it. We keep getting more of them, so. So this is Nali, our coy wolf. Coy? Yeah, the coyote wolf. Oh. Nali. Which one? The one in the back. That's the coyote one? Yeah. So she squeaks. What a hair. Oh, okay, okay. She goes. Okay. She has these different vocalizations. And then this is Volk, who's on the house. How do they do it with the flies? They don't, because their ears are perfect. Some of them. They have a little bit? Yeah. Can you spray anything or no? They don't let you. Nowadays. Some of them we can touch and put stuff on their ears. Yeah. Some of them, we don't have any now. We've had ones that came to us who had really, you know, who had their ears. We just try not to put toxic things on their ears. And then some of them we can't touch, so we can't put anything on their ears. Anyway. It's like a short period when the flies come, so it's not too bad. Yeah, you guys don't have a lot of water residues. Right, right, right, right. Because the moist brings them on. Yeah. Especially if you don't have horses or cows, that also brings a lot of freaking flies. Yeah, we have a cow. Do you have horses and cows? Yeah, but little ones. You have the baby cows? Yeah, the one that don't, yeah. They're so cute. I want people to walk with a cow, right? So I don't want a regular freaking cow, I want just a cow, right? Tiny one. So they walk with you too? Yeah. Yeah, cows love to walk, you know? Yeah. Yeah, the llamas, the alpacas, they all love to walk, you know? I have a cow, you know? And she comes and stay right here, and she just loves it. Everybody. It's like Noah's Ark. Yeah, that's the goal. I love it, I love it. And the kangaroo used to be hanging out with that, that migration, yeah. We know the people in the animal tracks. Oh, you do? Tell them to give it to me back. But it's not them, it's the Fish and Wildlife. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they say, oh, you don't have a fence, you know, tall fence. Okay, so I'll build it. No, it's not enough. Yeah. The dog didn't live in the ranch, the dog live in Encino. I'm sorry, the kangaroo. They didn't live at the ranch. Live with us. His favorite friend was a little chihuahua mix named Spot. And he would carry them. He would grab them and carry them, and just jump on. And then Spot would come and just chew on his little hands like this, right? Then the little hands, and then you know how they watch their hands like a rocket? Yeah. And they go like this. And then they will carry him. And then the way I will bring him to me is I just bring the bag. And he would just come and dive into the bag. A pouch, yeah. A bag pouch. And what about this one? What's the story? Is it by himself? This is Jax. He's by himself right now. Okay. He's the one I told you, that's the enclosure I don't go in. He's so unassuming right now with his fur all gone. He's so little. Nobody goes. Oh no, everybody goes in. I mean, a lot of people go in there. Except you. So it's against you. No, he, I think he's rather fond of me, but maybe too fond. Oh. But I, he's, you know, we like to say it's all about bond. Yeah. And like I said, because I don't go in with all them as much. It's also out of respect. Why? You know, for them. Is that the food car or what? Yeah, thank you. Wow. He knows. Yeah. The car is way over there, but he, as soon as he heard it, like, what is it? Like a mile, half a mile away? Yeah. Bam. And so when people says, my dog knows when my husband is coming, you know, or when my aunt is coming, or my mom has come, of course they know. They're freaking sensitive. My neighbor. To the little sounds that we don't hear. Yeah. My neighbor used to say, like five minutes before you get home, I could hear the dogs. Yeah. Like what's going on with the dogs? You pulling them like, yes. They know. Let's go. Can we go in here, Rene? I know they're going to. Yeah. Maybe you'll surprise us, Delilah, and you'll be social. It's so fun. Like, I think their most fun part is being higher than all the other wolves. Like they have this big space, but they love to get on that, that house up there. What do you think, Delilah? The benches are so good. Ah, there's chairs. We just had a big fundraiser, so we put the benches in here. We had a musician in here. How did it go? It was awesome. Did you raise good money? I mean, it was our first time doing this. So we, so far, I know we've raised 25,000. That's like after what we've spent. They're the ones I said, their mom and dad are here too. So Roma is one of the siblings, sibling of Wander, who was like barking, howling at us. They're not afraid of humans, like that they know. Right, right, right. Let's put it that way, but with new people. Yeah. And Delilah keeps coming out of her shell. Wiley's doing a parade. That's Wiley. Oh, there you go, there you go. He gets to go off leash. I am so happy to come and visit the ancestors of our dogs. I got a great experience for me. It was very spiritual, very instinctual. I got to see what I see in dogs, but a lot deeper. So if you guys want to find out more about this incredible conservation, preservation place, it's close to me. And you guys should be able to find out through wolfconnection.org. Thank you, Wiley. You're welcome.