Wolves USA Cassiopeia “Cassie”
Cassie was born on April 21, 2018 and was bred by Bobby Burress at Wolves USA kennel in Texas, USA. Cassie was born into a litter of four puppies (two girls, two boys). She came home with us when she was about 4.5 weeks old. Her parents are Wolves USA Sundance and Summerfield Wica at Wolves USA. Like her parents, Cassie is a high content wolfdog.
From the first day we picked her up, Cassie has been a very playful, affectionate, and bold girl. She loves to explore new places and meet new people. She is very enthusiastic and loves to roughhouse, but can also be very sweet. Her favorite way to cuddle is asking for belly rubs, and she will close her eyes and smile. Cassie is very intelligent and learns quickly. She has moderate food drive - she can be picky about certain treats. Once you figure out what interests her, though, she is willing to work and gives her full attention. Cassie regularly comes out in public with me to pet-friendly stores, so that we can continue to socialize and expose her to new environments and people. She is quite curious and loves to investigate her surroundings. She’s always been very loving and patient with kids who greet her (with parental permission and direct supervision). We don’t have children, but I suspect she would have greatly enjoyed having kids of her own to play with, and I think her sons and daughters will, too. If she ever becomes uncomfortable or startled, she recovers quickly and gets back to investigating and exploring her surroundings in a short amount of time. She has a LOT of energy, and always wants to be on the go. She doesn’t just chill out and relax very often, so we always find ways to keep her mind engaged both at home and during our public outings.
Cassie is same-sex aggressive, which is a very common trait for very high content wolfdogs. We keep her 100% separated from other females, as well as from neutered males (which have historically been targeted by intact female high content wolfdogs per numerous other owners’ reports over the decades that wolfdogs have been owned and bred in the USA). Cassie gets annoyed and can get grumpy if she’s not removed from a situation where there’s other mature females are around, but she’s very affectionate and patient with puppies, as is common in higher content wolfdogs. She does tend to get pretty excited around puppies, though, and sometimes has to be reminded to play gently(!). She typically likes most intact males, although there are some boys she has decided she doesn’t like for her own mysterious reasons. Her pen-mates for several years were our intact low content brothers, Teddy and Buddy, whom she loves to play with. We pulled Teddy out in late 2022 to be a pen-mate for his younger half-sister, Kiyaya, and Buddy has stayed with Cassie. Cassie doesn’t play with Buddy as much as she did with Teddy, but they definitely still enjoy each other’s company and love to cuddle in the evenings. Cassie doesn’t tend to guard her kibble, and will leave her kibble to come over for pets and attention. However, we don’t antagonize her by putting our hands in her food bucket while she’s eating, and she does not like sharing raw meals or toys that she feels are high value. Trading her a very high value treat works quite well if we ever need to take something from her, though. Cassie has a high prey drive, so we do not allow her to be off leash around small animals or livestock.
As is typical for a high content wolfdog, Cassie only has one heat per year during late winter. She experiences some hormonal mood shifts during this time and can sometimes be a little grouchy or more easily overstimulated during breeding season. However, she does not display any actual aggression, and even on her grouchy days, Cassie has very clear body language that makes it easy to understand her emotions and interact with her in the way she needs at that moment. Finding ways to avoid confrontation, keeping interactions positive, and focusing on reinforcing our bond of mutual respect and trust, have worked wonderfully with Cassie. Her seasonal shift in hormones and mood changes typically begin around January and end around May-June, which follows the typical hormonal shifts that wolves go through.
Cassie will be whelping her first litter in April 2025, which will be sired by our male high content wolfdog, Cottonwoodz Genn Greymane. Their puppies will be 95%+ high content wolfdogs. We still have just a couple openings left for this litter, so please feel free to check out our Breeding Plans page for more information!
Cassie is about 28 inches tall and weighs about 70 pounds, which is an average size for a high content female wolfdog.
Health Testing
-
Hips X-Ray
Taken November 14, 2020 at 2.5 years of age, intact.
-
OFA Hips Good
OFA Certificate Hips Good
-
Elbows X-Rays
Taken November 14, 2020 at 2.5 years of age, intact.
-
OFA Elbows Normal
OFA Certificate Elbows Normal
-
OFA Patellas Normal
OFA Certificate Patellas Normal
-
OFA CAER 2020 Normal
Cassie had her first OFA CAER eye exam on July 27, 2020 at 2 years and 3 months of age. Results: OFA CAER Normal.
Fun fact: Cassie was the very first high content wolfdog in North America to ever get an OFA eye exam! The exam was done with zero sedation, and Cassie did very well! We have a video of her exam posted on our Facebook kennel page.
-
OFA Cardiac Auscultation 2020
Cassie had her first OFA Cardiac Auscultation performed on November 14, 2020 (OFA published results on 12/4/2020). Results: OFA Cardiac Normal/Clear.
-
Embark
Cassie is Clear for all testable disorders on Embark’s panel.
Cassie’s Embark genetic COI is 17%. She has High Diversity on both her MHC Class II - DLA DRB1 and MHC Class II - DLA DQA1 and DQB1 autoimmune loci.
View the results for Cassie’s Embark Vet genetic testing and learn more about her genetic health, coat colors, body type, haplotypes, and more.
Embark Vet is not affiliated with Wolfdogs of the Ebon Blade or Tamaskans of the Ebon Blade.
-
Cassie's Pedigree
Link to the Wolflookalike.com online database to view information about Cassie, her pedigree, and relatives.
Wolflookalike.com is a privately run website that is not affiliated with Wolfdogs of the Ebon Blade or Tamaskans of the Ebon Blade.
-
OFA Profile
Link to the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals database to view Cassie’s profile and see her OFA health testing scores.
OFA is not affiliated with Wolfdogs of the Ebon Blade or Tamaskans of the Ebon Blade.