Noelle of the Ebon Blade

“Kiyaya”

Kiyaya was born on December 26, 2020, and was bred by us, Wolfdogs of the Ebon Blade, here in Texas, USA. She is from our third litter, which was born at Christmas time, so we went with Christmas themed names for the litter. The Christmas Litter had 7 total puppies born via C-Section. Sadly, one male and one female did not survive the surgery. The remaining 5 puppies were large and healthy (3 females, 2 males). Kiyaya’s parents are Anubis and Sylvaen Tarth (“Reckless”).

Kiyaya left us at 10 weeks of age to go live with a wonderful family in Arizona, who raised her with their children, indoor cat, and two other dogs. Unfortunately, the family experienced a drastic job change in early 2022 and ended up having to relocate, which forced them to rehome their pets. Naturally, we brought Kiyaya back home with us, back in March 2022. Although we had hoped that her family would eventually be able to bring her back home, it sadly didn’t work out. Kiyaya is an extremely sweet, submissive, affectionate girl who really just wants to be loved and spoiled. She very much prefers to be a house dog, although she currently has to live outside, because she got in a fight with her mama Reckless in November 2022, and they held a deep grudge against each other after that. We keep Kiyaya and Reckless separated for their own safety and to prevent them from getting highly stressed out and upset when they see each other.

Kiyaya is currently pen buddies with her older half-brother, Teddy, who is very sweet and patient with Kiyaya’s quirks. We learned after Kiyaya came back home to us that one of her family’s other dogs had bullied Kiyaya pretty consistently as a young puppy, to the point where he’d go after her if he saw that she even had a toy. Although they eventually chose to rehome him due to this behavior, the damage to Kiyaya’s confidence had already been done. She tends to be fairly insecure around other dogs and at times will even nip at them when they’re not looking, in an attempt to drive them away from her personal bubble. She can also get nervous when other dogs are playing or roughhousing, and this can also result in her lashing out in fear and uncertainty. She does have moments where she really does want to play with male dogs she’s bonded to, like Teddy and our Wolven Gazehound, Corus, but she tends to be very awkward and even rude when she tries to play, and she has a poor understanding of what other dogs are telling her if she’s getting on their nerves.

With us, she is very trusting, loving, and just wants to spend as much time with us as possible. Her idea of a perfect day would be to have a nice walk in the morning when it’s cool, and then spend her day cuddling on the couch with you and hanging out with her family around the house, chasing a ball in the yard, and then getting to sleep in her owner’s room at night. Before she and her mom had their fight, Kiyaya would sleep in her crate at the foot of my bed every night from March to November of 2022, and I know she misses it. Kiyaya does not have separation anxiety from what we’ve seen, but she absolutely prefers to be near “her” people. She tends to urinate submissively, which is a very common behavior for more submissive wolfdogs. It’s their way of saying, “I’m not a threat,” but it can be kind of gross and inconvenient for people, so if you have carpet, please keep this in mind, as it’s highly unlikely she will ever stop this behavior. This behavior was something that her first family didn’t quite understand and weren’t entirely thrilled about, although they still loved her immensely.

While Kiyaya can be quite shy of strangers at first, she tends to warm up to strangers much, much faster than most of her siblings. We think that she will be able to adjust fairly quickly to a new family, as long as they are gentle and patient with her. She will probably do best with at least one week of decompression and adjustment before introducing her to any other male dog(s) in the household. We’d recommend that her new family wait at least a month or two before taking her out in public, as well, so that she can have time to fully learn to trust her new family and start to see them as a source of comfort and safety.

Kiyaya does okay when we take her to pet friendly stores, although she does better if we bring one of our more confident dogs with her, like Corus, to help lend her some moral support. She is already leash trained, knows several commands, and is crate and house trained. She’s incredibly smart and loves treats, so teaching her new things is pretty easy! She does not resource guard food from us, but she can snark at other dogs a bit, to warn them away from her food. We believe this may be a habit she picked up due to the other dog that had picked on her when she lived with her first family. Keeping her separated from other dogs while she eats would be the easiest way to help her feel at ease.

Although Kiyaya was raised with children and an indoor cat for the first year of her life, she hasn’t been around any children for almost two years now, and she has shown high prey drive towards our neighbor’s outdoor cats, so we are looking for homes with no children under the age of 14 and no cats or other small animals.

We will require interested homes to have a secure, escape-proof fence for their yard, as well as an outdoor enclosure. The fence must be made of reinforced steel, such as 9-gauge chain link or 4-gauge cattle panels (wrapped in a secondary fence, such as horse wire, along the bottom half, to prevent her from sticking her head through the gaps in the panel wires). The enclosure must be at least 500 sqft. The yard and enclosure fence must be at least 8 ft tall, with lean-ins, dig guards, and a double-gated entryway. Even though Kiyaya is crate trained and house trained, it will likely take her a while to learn the rules for her new household, so having a secure place for her to spend time unsupervised if needed, such as while you’re at work or otherwise away from home for more than a couple of hours. This will set her, and her new family, up for success.

Kiyaya cannot be in a home with other female dogs and is not a candidate for off-leash activities, going to dog parks, or doggy daycare. She was spayed in January 2023, but she has still shown strong signs of Same Sex Aggression. This is a very common and strong instinct for female wolfdogs especially. Spaying female wolfdogs doesn’t lessen the intense and often immediate dislike that they feel for other female dogs (of any breed). She does best with a good natured and patient male dog who can help teach her how to “speak dog” and learn to play and act politely.