This sounds like an attempt to recreate mollosoi dogs, just with extra steps.
I'm fairly confident that the examples given would result in a large (but not giant), smart, and people friendly dog that could still operate successfully without a handler. Not in the first generation, but eventually.
Tbh, don't even need wolves in the mix; they don't really bring much to the table, and you aren't going to maintain that look past three or four generations to begin with. Wolf-dogs that breed with each other don't hold on to a wolfish look for very many generations as it is, even when they're all mixed with the same dog breed. Hiding mixing in that many dog breeds, you're looking at what? 1/32 wolf by the time you have a breed that's no longer being crosses outside of established individuals from the project. Maybe it's 1/64th, I can't remember what it came out to when someone did the math on reddit about how many generations it would take to no longer be breeding half breeds at all, with a stable population for the project.
If you leave wolves out, you already have a more stable pool that you can select traits from for each succeeding generation. You just can't keep a wolf appearance without breeding wolves only, and even then you'd have to select each generation for that look to the exclusion of other traits.
Part of the reason dog breeds exist is those repeating chains of DNA that most (but not all, supposedly) canids have. Can't remember the right term for it, but the Russian foxes also rely on that quirk. When that's in play, you can breed for specific traits, but the more focused you get on one, or one small set, the more the others express themselves, hence the curly tails and floppy ears of the Russian "domesticated" foxes. You select for friendliness, you get "softer" looks. You select for looks, you get some combination of other traits (like the skittishness some smaller breeds are known for).
We already have a good idea of what traits breeding for size gets, and we have an idea of what breeding to visual standards gets when that standard is wolfish.
Edit: the Wiki summary for mollosoi dogs
The biggest dog I've ever met was a great dane that weighed 80kg (~176lbs). I'm short, but his back was on my waist-height, and his head was a lot bigger than mine. He was completely black too, so quite the startling sight running towards you, genuinely looked like some sort of hell hound lmao. He was very friendly though, we met him at a dog park. The owner also told me they had to order custom harnesses for him, since nothing commercially made was big enough
Sounds great. Just make sure it also gets the genes for strong hip ligaments. And the dopey friend genes that all labradors tend to have.
And then breed it to look like a polar bear sized grey wolf.
It's going to cost a fortune to feed that beast.
And he's going to hog the bed.
Probably also going to have serious heart problems.
Jurassic Bark
You did it. You crazy son of a bitch, you did it.
Why are my eyes leaking?
🎶If it takes forever I will wait for you
For a thousand summers I will wait for you🎵
I'd love a worg for a pet
But am I still allowed to pet?
Breed every type of dog in a huge bracket and end up with the ultimate mutt. It will probably live 20 years.
Definitely seen mutts reach that age. The key is to just have a small mutt that doesn't have any purebred ancestors for the last few generations at least.
So, like short-hair Tibetan Mastiffs, or just straight up grizzlies, then? I mean, at some point on that arc, you leave "canine" behind and find out for yourself what that mage who invented owlbears must've felt — before being formally introduced to their own intestines.
There is an experiment in Russia that has been breeding foxes for over 50 years now. The goal is to understand how domestication changes an the physiology of an animal. They breed the foxes that show the most tame and docile behaviors towards humans in an effort to recreate the process of changing wolves to dogs.
On the flip side, they also breed the foxes that are most aggressive and hostile towards people. One day they will get too powerful and get loose...
The coolest thing about that experiment is that just selecting for tame and docile foxes also caused them to develop floppy ears and curled tails.
We had a dog until recently (RIP my sweet girl) that was part Tennessee Tree walker who was also part Pyrenese (this was all confirmed by DNA test because no one could figure out what she was.) The result was that she was 2-3X as big as any other tree walker. Picture a beagle that stood waist high to an average man, Great Dane sized.
Now imagine if we did this with a Chihuahua,
Ah, so that's where chupacabras come from.
We need to revive other mega fauna first, otherwise they'll just eat us as the next best choice. Big predators require big prey.
"Otherwise"? By the proximity alone inherent in the implied domesticity, humans'd never be off-menu.
Baleen whales would like a word
Add a dash of beagle for pure mayhem.
