Wolf

Wolf "Dog" redirects here. For the music track, see Minecraft - Volume Alpha. Wolves are neutral mobs that can be tamed.

Spawning[edit]
Wolves spawn naturally in forests, taigas, giant tree taigas and snowy taigas, along with all variants of these biomes (with the exception of flower forests), in packs of up to 4. 10% spawn as puppies ‌[upcoming: JE 1.15]

In  Bedrock Edition  wolves spawn naturally in taiga biomes and snowy taiga biomes (not in giant tree taiga and forest biomes). 10% spawn as babies. They require light level of 7 or above to spawn.

Naturally-spawned wolves are untamed, and become hostile if attacked by the player.

Drops[edit]
Wolves drop 1-3 experience when killed by a player or another tamed wolf.

Behavior and appearance[edit]
A tamed wolf "begging" the player.

Three tamed wolves following the player.

Wolves exhibit three different states depending on how the user interacts with them:
 * Wild wolves have gray fur, a drooping tail, and their eyes consist of two white pixels and two black pupils. (On each side.) They are neutral toward the player. They attack rabbits, foxes, skeletons and their variants, llamas, sheep, and baby turtles without provocation. They may run away when spat upon by llamas, depending on the strength of the llama. They do not despawn.


 * Angry wolves have a constant growling and fearsome appearance. Their tail becomes straight, their eyes become red and the contrast level of the fur increases, revealing dark patches of bristling hair and a mouth line raised in a slight snarl. Angry wolves are hostile only to mobs that attack them. They can see attackers even if they are invisible. Angry wolves cannot be leashed, but a wild wolf may become angry while it is still leashed without dropping the lead.

A wolf becomes hostile to a player or other mob that attacks it, unless the attacker is the wolf's owner or is otherwise on the same team, and also causes wild wolves and standing tamed wolves in a 33×33×21 cuboid centered on the attacked wolf to become hostile to the attacker.
 * Tamed wolves have friendlier looking eyes. They have a red collar around their neck, which can be dyed using any color of dye on the wolf. Pressing use on the wolf makes it sit and remain in place and not follow the player around. Tamed wolves attack players or mobs that injure their owner, unless the target has the same owner or is on the same team. Standing wolves attack players or mobs that are attacked by their owner, unless the target has the same owner or is on the same team. They do not attack creepers, ghasts, tamed horses, or tamed cats, regardless of owner. Standing tamed wolves attack skeletons and their variants without provocation, but not sheep, baby turtles, passive rabbits, or foxes.

Skeletons and their variants, foxes, baby turtles, and passive rabbits actively avoid wolves. Killer rabbits‌[JE only] attack wolves. Sheep ignore wolves other than their random running after being damaged.

The behavior of puppies is the same as tamed wolves. Puppies have larger heads, similar to other animal babies.

Wolves are 0.85 blocks tall, and baby wolves are 0.425 blocks tall. The textures of the wolves are tinted dark gray once submerged.

Movement[edit]
Standing tamed wolves wander randomly when near their owner, but follow if more than 10 blocks away, and teleport to a nearby free block (if any) if more than 12 blocks away. Besides making travel easier, teleporting can be used to rescue them from lava, water or pits. Tamed wolves shiver during rain if they are not covered by a roof.
 * Wolves can be told to "sit" by pressing use on them, and made to stand again with another press of use.
 * A wolf sits when first tamed.
 * While sitting, they do not follow the player. However, if their owner fights a mob near them, they are still likely to join the fight. When the fight is over, they go back to sitting (if in water, they do not sit until they are on dry land). They sit at their new location instead of returning to wherever they were previously.
 * Wolves stand up and follow the player if pushed into water or injured while sitting.
 * Wolves find paths to their targets if attacking, even in craters. They also navigate along the edges of cliffs, but occasionally take drops long enough to damage them.
 * Wolves attack their targets running at player's walking speed and by leaping at them in exactly the same manner as spiders, but differently cause no damage while in midair. Tamed wolves attack any animal the player starts to attack. They also can navigate and turn around in 1 × 1 horizontal tunnels.
 * After emerging from the water, a wolf shakes the water off their fur.

Teleportation[edit]
Tamed wolves teleport to their owner, if they are more than 12 blocks away, with a few caveats. A wolf does not teleport:
 * Teleporting resets the focus of a tamed wolf, so if a wolf is attacking a mob and teleports beside a player, it resumes following the player.
 * It is possible for tamed wolves to teleport to an inaccessible location (e.g. under ice) and be injured or die of suffocation as a result.
 * If the wolf has been ordered to sit.[2]
 * Exception: The wolf is likely to teleport if it is injured while sitting (it no longer sits after teleporting). An example is if a wolf that is sitting is hit by another player, it teleports to their owner.
 * Exception: If the wolf is in a loaded chunk, and the player gets damaged by a mob, there's a chance for the wolf to stop sitting, causing them to teleport if the player is far away, then attacking the player's attacker and sitting down afterwards.
 * If the wolf is chasing after a skeleton. This can lead to wolves standing and jumping in one place, such as over a cavern, if a skeleton is near. The wolf teleports once the skeleton is killed.
 * If the wolf is in a minecart.
 * If the wolf has been attached to a fence post with a lead.
 * If the wolf is in an unloaded chunk.
 * If none of the blocks on the edge of a 5×5×1 region centered on the player are transparent blocks with a solid block below and another transparent block above.
 * If the player is in another dimension; a wolf remains in its current dimension until the player returns. However, wolves can be transported to another dimension by pushing them into the portal first.
 * If the owner is not directly touching the ground (e.g. using elytra, flying, in a boat).

Taming, health and feeding[edit]
Many tamed wolves sitting.

A group of begging wolves.

A wolf can be tamed by feeding it bones. Once tamed, a wolf does not accept any more bones. Note that the number of bones required is random – each bone has a ⅓ chance of taming the wolf.[3] If the wolf is tamed, it receives a red collar and sits if not swimming. There is no limit[4] to the number of wolves the player can tame. A wolf's tail rises and lowers depending on its health. The exact health of an individual wolf can be determined by measuring the angle between its hind legs and tail. The angle indicates the percentage of health that the wolf has. Tamed wolves whine when they have low health (below 10). Wild wolves have a maximum health of 8, so their tails always remain significantly lower than those of tamed wolves. Tamed wolves can be healed by feeding them any sort of meat other than fish; listed below, this restores as much of the wolf's health as the same food would restore hunger points when eaten by the player. Puppies have only 8 health when born, but their maximum health is the same as an adult's - 20 × 10, and they can be raised to full health by feeding them any meat listed above or using splash potions of healing. Note that wolves do not get food poisoning, so they can freely eat rotten flesh or raw chicken. Feeding a tamed wolf that is already at full health usually starts the "love mode" animation.

A tamed wolf's collar color can be changed by using a dye on the wolf.

Breeding[edit]
A puppy sitting.

Tamed wolves at full health can be bred with any type of meat, including rotten flesh and raw chicken without causing the Hunger effect.

The growth of baby wolves can be slowly accelerated using any type of meat. Each use takes 10% off the remaining time to grow up. Unlike healing, breeding and speed growth cannot use rabbit stew and any type of fish.

Breeding two wolves that recognize someone else as an owner causes the puppy to also be owned by the owner of the original two wolves. If two tamed wolves with different owners are bred, the owner of the puppy is the owner of the youngest wolf.