Exploring the Outdoors with a Wolfdog (PHOTOS)

Kelly Lund is a man dedicated to adventure both in his personal life and his professional life as the Outdoor Recreation Coordinator for the city of Denver, Colorado. And he has a constant companion in his thrill-packed life. Whether he’s looking for the best slopes to ski or the wildest rivers to raft, Lund often goes out with Loki, his low-content wolfdog. Specifically, Loki is a hybrid of a Siberian husky, Malamute and Arctic Wolf.

“He wakes me up... He runs around and chases squirrels and such which he never catches,” Lund said. “He never sits still, constantly roaming, sniffing, exploring.”

Though the genes of a domestic dog are more present than a wolf, Loki still has the tall height and stature of the kind of wolf one might see in places like Yosemite National Park. He even roams around the outdoors like one, accompanying his human to the snow-covered mountains of Colorado.

“He comes alive,” Lund said. “He is very nimble in precarious situations and can travel seemingly forever.”

Lund describes Loki as having a quirky personality, often behaving more like a cat than a dog.

“He doesn’t beg for attention,” he said. “He’s always present. It teaches me to be present and find satisfaction in the simple, natural things in life.”

Now almost three years old, Loki started joining Lund in his backcountry skiing adventures from the day he was brought home, at just four months old. “Even then, he moved better through the snow than many full-grown dogs,” Lund said.

While Loki’s companionship and company is great, Lund says that having a wolfdog as a pet also presents challenges. “Loki is, by far, the most difficult and time-consuming animal I have ever trained,” Lund said.

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Growing up, the recreation coordinator was surrounded by animals like Australian Shepherds, a German Shepherd, Rottweilers and a purebred Husky. But according to Lund, domesticated dogs are very different than hybrids. “Wolfdogs can be very destructive to a house, escape easily from a yard and be extremely timid and nervous around people,” he said. “They require an extreme amount of exercise and socialization that most people do not have time for.”

This causes many wolfdog owners to give up on training their pets. He said that there is an incredible need for wolfdog adoptions since many owners “end up getting rid of it, because they had no idea what they were getting themselves into.”

“It saddens me to see overly-hyper, poorly-trained dogs, because they have spent most of their lives behind a fence,” Lund said.

Lund hopes to shed light on the issue through Loki, specifically by sharing photos of Loki’s experiences through Instagram (@Loki_The_Wolfdog).

Loki made his debut on Lund’s personal Instagram feed (@shark_toof) in 2012, but as photos of his wolfdog hybrid dominated the feed, Lund decided to start @Loki_The_Wolfdog a few months later.

“It’s really been fascinating to me how it has taken off really in the last month or so,” he said. “I really just hope to use it as a platform to inspire others to get out, explore their world and make memories with their own pups.”