I have heard the horror stories about giving them raw meat. I don't give Bella raw meat. But wanted to know your thoughts about it? I eat my steak very rare. I had thought about giving her the trimmings but decided against it. What do you think?
This is completely untrue - giving them raw meat won't make them killers! It's just an old wives' tale. There is a whole community of people that feed their dogs (and wolfdogs) raw meat and bones as their primary diet.
OK - moving on to the children and prey drive issue.
Your hybrid might be an exception to the rule. But, with any powerful animal that has wild instincts, I would be very worried about my kids being in contact with it. It only takes an instant for a tragedy to occur. I know you have said that you have done research on hybrids, but what I see from your pixs is a little child, cuddling with the new puppy.
FIRST, let me make it 110% clear that it's not just wolfdogs that can view kids as prey. ANY large, working dog breed can do this, including any Northern breed such as Huskies and Malamutes, German Shepherds, etc. So this is NOT, NOT, NOT! limited to wolfdogs.
wolfdogs can and are raised with children to live happyily together....you have to understand the wolfdog to begin with and do your research...which in my opinion i dont think those people did in that article.
they are not the "big bad wolf' like most people think they are. they are more shy like the wolf.
its people like that that DO give the wolfdogs a bad name.
OK, the folks who wrote the articles I referenced DID do their research. Heck, they are the ones who run WOLF PARK, an internationally-renowned wolf education facility. They do plenty of work with hybrids. They are not the ones making the wolf out to be that bad guy - quite the opposite. I am an ADVOCATE for these animals and would never reference a site that makes them out to be evil, vicious, etc.
Now, that said, your assessment of wolfdogs is 100% spot-on. They are shy, they are NOT vicious, they do NOT attack unprovoked. They are sweet, shy, timid, and gentle. However, there is no denying that they are highly prey-motivated. Now, as long as the animal is raised with children (your own children) and socialized from birth around strange children, you are likely not going to have a problem. The problem comes with wolfdogs who were not raised around kids, and suddenly exposed to them later in life. And yes, sadly, a tripping, falling, shrieking child can arouse the prey instinct in ANY dog (they are all predators), not to mention wolfdogs. My personal rule is to never leave a child unsupervised around any large dog. Just seems like good common sense to me.
PLEASE remember too, that actual amount of wolf content will make a massive difference in the animal's temperament. A very low-content wolfdog such as Bella is not going to be much different from a regular dog. HOWEVER, an animal that is nearly pure wolf will be very, very different - and will display a greater degree of predatory behaviors. It depends on the individual dog, too.
Also, it's not true that the "predatory instincts" kick in at 2 years old (as a previous poster said), or 1 year old, or 3 years old - the number changes depending on who you're talking to! They are present from birth and can be seen in puppies playing with each other ("rehearsing" predatory and dominance behaviors by chasing, biting, wrestling, etc.), chasing bugs (in your case, chickens) and small animals, chasing their toys, etc. There is no "magic switch" that suddenly flips on when a wolfdog hits a certain age. Like any dog, it's ALL in how they are raised. And they are definitely harder to raise than a normal dog. I won't deny that. But, there are many, many responsible owners out there who work with them. They aren't any more dangerous than a normal dog - they have all the same capacity for fear, aggression, etc. as any other large breed. However, handler margin for error is less. You can't make the same mistakes in early training and socialization as you can with a domestic dog.
I hope people take the time to read what I wrote. These animals are greatly misunderstood.