At first glance, you might think you’re looking at a pair of wolves, and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. The dogs seen here are Czechoslovakian Vlcak, a breed whose other name is the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog because half its ancestry is Carpathian wolf.

The Vlcak’s history began with Karel Hartl, head of the canine border guards section of Libějovice. In the 1950s. Hartl sought to improve the health, strength and toughness of the German Shepherd Dogs used to guard borders by inserting Carpathian wolf blood into the breed. The first wolf, “Brita,” was bred to a GSD named “Cesar,” their first successful mating in 1958. “Brita” was then bred with another GSD, “Kurt,” which resulted in a second litter. A third breeding occurred between “Argo,” a wolf, and “Astra,” a GSD. Puppies from these three matings were the foundation stock of the Vlcak. The breed Hartl developed is a strong wolf-like dog with a great sense of direction and the stamina to easily traverse rough terrain at the speed of 12 kilometers per hour. CzVs (as we’ve seen it written) are canters, and running a 100 kilometers is easy for them.

We’ve seen references to the breedings as “experiments” to see if resulting offspring from mating a dog with a female wolf, and a bitch with a male wolf, could be reared successfully. Evidently, they could, but a few things were learned, including the fact that it was easier to cross a dog with a female wolf than it was to cross a male wolf with female dog: Also, each subsequent generation responded better to training and tracking.

In the 1970’s, most of the new hybrids were transferred to a breeding station in Malacky, part of the frontier guard in Bratislava, but the best dogs were impacted by the Iron Curtain. Still, it reduced pressure on Slovak breeders to create special dogs for the army, and consequently, they could spend more time developing the phenotype of the new breed.

That said, breeders had difficulty in getting the Cynologic Organization in Czechoslovakia to recognize a breeders club, let alone acceptance of the breed, but in 1982, the breeders (and especially Karel Hartl) prevailed, and the Czechoslovakian Clack was officially recognized. The Vlcak is currently an FSS breed with the AKC. 

We came across a more detailed history along with genetic charts and photographs here.

Photo of a Czechoslovakian Vlcak from the AKC website with permission.