Wolf

This article is about the mob in Minecraft. For the mob in Minecraft Dungeons, see MCD:Wolf. For the mob variant in Minecraft Earth, see MCE:Skeleton Wolf.

"Dog" redirects here. For the music track, see Minecraft - Volume Alpha.

Wolf

Health points	Wild: 8 Tamed: 20 × 10
Behavior	Neutral (wild, except Peaceful difficulty) Passive (tamed, and player is owner) Passive (wild, in Peaceful difficulty) Hostile (tamed, if owned by a different player, which that player is provoked) Neutral (tamed, if owned by a different player, unprovoked) Hostile (if attacked)
Attack strength	Easy: 3 Normal: 4 Hard: 6
Hitbox size	In Java Edition: Adult: Height: 0.85 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks Baby: Height: 0.425 Blocks Width: 0.3 Blocks In Bedrock Edition: Adult: Height: 0.8 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks Baby: Height: 0.4 Blocks Width: 0.3 Blocks
Spawn	§ Spawning
Items usable on	Bone Meat Fish ‌[Bedrock Edition only] Rabbit Stew ‌[Bedrock Edition only] Dye Lead

Wolves are neutral mobs that can be tamed.

Spawning

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 4, where 10% spawn as puppies.

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

Drops

Adult wolves drop 1–3 when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

Upon successful breeding, 1–7 are dropped.

Like other baby animals, killing a baby wolf yields no experience.

Behavior and appearance

A tamed wolf "begging" the player for food.

Three tamed wolves following the player around.

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 a white pixel and a black pixel for the pupil (on each side). They are neutral toward the player. Wolves attack sheep, rabbits, foxes, baby turtles, and skeletons without provocation. They avoid llamas, although wolves may attack a llama that spits on them. They do not despawn, even if they are in an unloaded chunk, or 32 blocks away from the player.
• Angry wolves have a constant growling and fearsome appearance. They become angry when they are either attacked by a player or mob, or when they see a mob they want to eat. Their tail is held out straight, their eyes become blood red, their mouth is raised in a slight snarl, and they have angry eyebrows. Angry wolves are hostile only to mobs that attack them, or the mobs which they are hunting. They can see attackers even if they are under the invisibility effect, but they cannot track the attacker down, if they get out of their render distance, or the attacker was able to unload the chunk where the wolves were. Angry wolves cannot be leashed, but a wild wolf may become angry while it is still leashed without dropping the lead.
• Tamed wolves have friendlier looking eyes. They have a default 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 that are not sitting attack players or mobs that their owner attacks, or those that injure 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. Tamed wolves are always passive to the player, even if the player hits them.

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. It 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, allowing coordination for attacks, and team hunts (only in Wild Wolves).

Skeletons and their variants, foxes, baby turtles, and passive rabbits actively avoid both tamed and wild wolves. Killer rabbits‌^{[JE only]} attack wolves actively. Sheep ignore wolves, but flee when attacked by one.

When the player holds meat or bones in front of the wolf, the wolf tilts its head as if to 'beg' for the food.

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

Wolves are 0.85‌^{[JE only]} or 0.8‌^{[BE only]} blocks tall, and baby wolves are 0.425‌^{[JE only]} or 0.4‌^{[BE only]} blocks tall. The textures of the wolves are tinted dark gray once submerged in water

In peaceful difficulty, wild wolves are always passive to the player, even when attacked.

Movement

A wolf shaking off water.

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, teleportation can be used to rescue them from lava, water or pits, as they immediately teleport to a safe area.

• Wolves can be told to "sit" by pressing use on them and made to stand again with another press of use.
  • A wolf automatically 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 it is pushed into water or injured while sitting.
• Wolves find paths to their targets if attacking, even in difficult terrain. They also navigate along the edges of cliffs, and occasionally fall far enough to take damage.
• Wolves attack their targets running at player's walking speed and by leaping at them in exactly the same manner as spiders, but 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 water, a wolf shakes the water off their fur. This is represented by an animation and water particles.

Teleportation

Tamed wolves teleport to their owner, if they are more than 12 blocks away, with a few caveats.

• 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, as its tracking has been reset.
• 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. This happens when the wolf considers transparent blocks, like glass, or half-blocks, to be open.

A wolf does not teleport:

• If the wolf has been ordered to sit.
  • 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 afterward.
• 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 or a boat
• 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 5×1×5 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).

Wolf teleportation is completely silent; this is not an oversight.

Taming, health and feeding

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 ¹⁄₃ chance of taming the wolf. If the wolf is tamed, it receives a red collar and, in Java Edition, sits if not swimming. There is no limit 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.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}.

Food	Heals (Java Edition)	Heals (Bedrock Edition)	Notes
Raw Cod Raw Salmon		2	‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Pufferfish Tropical Fish		1	Pufferfish can be fed to wolves without making them get the Hunger, Poison and Nausea status effects.‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Cooked Cod		5	‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Raw Chicken	1	2	Raw chicken can be fed to wolves without making them get the Hunger status effect.
Cooked Chicken	1	6
Raw Porkchop Raw Beef Raw Rabbit	2	3
Cooked Porkchop Steak	2	8
Rotten Flesh	2	4	Rotten flesh can be fed to wolves without making them get the Hunger status effect.
Raw Mutton	2	2
Cooked Mutton	2	6
Cooked Rabbit	2	5
Cooked Salmon		6	‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Rabbit Stew		10	‌[Bedrock Edition only]

Note that wolves do not get food poisoning, so they can freely eat rotten flesh, pufferfish 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

A pup 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 or any type of fish.

Breeding two wolves that recognize someone else as an owner causes the pup 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 pup is the owner of the younger parent wolf.

Sounds

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Wolf pants	?	Randomly	entity.wolf.ambient	subtitles.entity.wolf.ambient	?	?	16
	Wolf dies	?	Dying	entity.wolf.death	subtitles.entity.wolf.death	?	?	16
	Wolf growls	?	Randomly when angry	entity.wolf.growl	subtitles.entity.wolf.growl	?	?	16
	None	None	Unused sound event	entity.wolf.howl	None	None	None	None
	Wolf hurts	?	Getting hit	entity.wolf.hurt	subtitles.entity.wolf.hurt	?	?	16
	Wolf pants	?	Randomly when tamed	entity.wolf.pant	subtitles.entity.wolf.ambient	?	?	16
	Wolf shakes	?	Shaking off water	entity.wolf.shake	subtitles.entity.wolf.shake	?	?	16
	Footsteps	?	Walking	entity.wolf.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	?	?	16
	Wolf pants	?	Randomly when on low health	entity.wolf.whine	subtitles.entity.wolf.ambient	?	?	16

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Translation key
Wolf	wolf	entity.minecraft.wolf

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Translation key
Wolf	wolf	14	entity.wolf.name

Entity data

See also: Chunk format

Wolves have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

• Entity data
  • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
  • Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template
  • Additional fields for mobs that can breed see Template:Nbt inherit/breedable/template
  • Additional fields for mobs that can be tamed by players see Template:Nbt inherit/tameable/template
  • Additional fields for mobs that can become angry see Template:Nbt inherit/angerable/template
  •  CollarColor: The color of the wolf's collar. Present even for wild wolves (but does not render); default value is 14.

Collar color

Main article: Wolf/DV

[edit]

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
		Leader Of The Pack	Befriend five Wolves.	This does not have to be in a single game, so multiple games or reloading old saves does count toward this achievement.	20G	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Namespaced ID
	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed two animals together	Husbandry	—	husbandry/breed_an_animal
	Best Friends Forever	Tame an animal	Husbandry	—	husbandry/tame_an_animal
	Two by Two	Breed all the animals!	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed pairs of each of these 19 mobs: Bee Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Strider Turtle Wolf A trader llama does not count as a llama, and a mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breed-able together. Other breed-able mobs, if any, can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.	husbandry/bred_all_animals

Videos

Wolves when they were in development uploaded by Jeb as shown below.

History

Java Edition Beta
March 2, 2011					Notch confirmed the addition of wolves after having breakfast with an idol of his (likely Peter Molyneux).
March 18, 2011					Jeb posted a video preview of the wolves he was working on.
1.4					Added wolves.
					Wolves can be tamed. When wolves are hit by the player or the player's tamed wolves, they become angry. A glitch is currently encountered where if the player's wolf isn't sitting when the player logs off, it becomes wild and the player must tame it again. This problem was fixed a couple of updates after wolves were first introduced.
1.5					Prior to this update, wolves would continuously made whimpering noises, even when they were at full health in multiplayer because Jeb accidentally used client-side health instead of synced health. Wolves no longer do this.
1.6		Test Build 3			Players hurting themselves with arrows no longer causes all of their tamed wolves to attack them.
1.8		Pre-release			Just like farm animals, wolves no longer despawn, and they now spawn rarely.
					Most wolves now generate with the world.
Java Edition
1.1		?			Wolves now despawn only when hostile; passive and tamed wolves do not.
1.2.1		12w03a			Prior to this update, breeding wolves with wheat caused a bug that made them sit forever. This has been fixed.
					Wolves can now be bred through the use of any type of meat such as chicken (raw or cooked), pork (raw or cooked), beef (raw or cooked), and rotten flesh if tamed and at full health.
1.4.2		12w34a			Tamed wolves can now have dye-able collars.
1.4.4		pre			Added baby untamed wolves, which can be spawned only in creative using a spawn egg.
1.6.1		?			Passive untamed wolves now despawn, but only after at least two minutes.
1.6.2		release			Wolves, along with zombies, creepers and skeletons, no longer turn hostile to the player when attacked in creative mode.[is this the correct version?]
1.8		14w02a			Baby wolves growth can now be accelerated using raw or cooked chicken, raw or cooked porkchop, raw or cooked beef and rotten flesh.
		14w05b			Tamed wolf collars are no longer visible when they have the Invisibility effect.
		14w10a			Wolves (both wild and tamed) now chase and attack both regular skeletons and wither skeletons.
					Tamed wolves named using a name tag now display death messages to the owner.
		14w18a			A tamed wolf's collar color now defaults to orange rather than red.
1.9		15w38a			All tamed wolves – even unnamed ones – now display death messages to their owner.
		15w39a			Wolves are now slightly taller (0.85 blocks tall rather than 0.8, with babies 0.425 blocks tall rather than 0.4).
		15w46a			A tamed wolf's collar color now once again defaults to red.
1.10		16w21a			Wild wolves no longer despawn.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID of wolves has been changed from Wolf to wolf.
1.13		18w07a			Wild wolves now attack baby turtles.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of wolves and baby wolves has been changed.
					The textures of tamed wolves have been changed.
					The texture of tamed baby wolves has been changed.
					The textures of angry wolves and baby wolves have been changed.
		19w07a			Wild wolves now attack foxes.
1.15		19w37a			Now have a 5% chance to spawn as babies.
1.16.2		Pre-release 3			Wolves are now properly rendered in dark places.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.9.0		build 1			Added wolves and baby wolves.
					Wolves can be tamed and tamed wolves can be bred to make baby tamed wolves.
					When wolves and baby wolves are hit by the player or the player's tamed wolves, they become angry.
		build 2			Wolves now have sounds.
		build 9			Wolves now have interact buttons at the bottom of the screen to tame and sit them.
0.11.0		build 1			Wolves' collars are now dyeable.
0.12.1		build 11			Tamed wolves now attack targets when hit with a bow.
0.13.0		build 1			Wolves now naturally attack skeletons and rabbits.
0.14.0		build 1			Baby zombie jockeys now check for nearby adult wolves to mount prior to attacking the player, villager, or golem.
0.15.0		build 1			Baby husks can now mount wolves.
					Wolves now attack strays.
0.16.0		build 4			Wolves now damage the player in peaceful difficulty.[verify]
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Wolves now run away from llamas.
Bedrock Edition
1.5.0		beta 1.5.0.4			Wild wolves now attack baby turtles.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of wolves and baby wolves has been changed.
					The textures of tamed wolves have been changed.
					The texture of tamed baby wolves has been changed.
					The textures of angry wolves and baby wolves have been changed.
1.13.0		beta 1.13.0.1			Wild wolves now attack foxes.
1.16.0		beta 1.15.0.51			Wolves now spawn in forests, wooded hills and giant tree taigas.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1		Added wolves and baby wolves.
					Wolves can be tamed and tamed wolves can be bred to make baby tamed wolves.
					When wolves and baby wolves are hit by the player or the player's tamed wolves, they become angry.
TU14		1.04			Tamed wolves can now have dyeable collars.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		A tamed wolf's collar color now defaults to orange rather than red.
					The growth of baby wolves can now be accelerated using raw or cooked chicken, raw or cooked porkchop, raw or cooked beef and rotten flesh.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90					The textures of wolves and baby wolves has been changed.
					The textures of tamed wolves have been changed.
					The texture of tamed baby wolves has been changed.
					The textures of angry wolves and baby wolves have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added wolves and baby wolves.
					Wolves can be tamed and tamed wolves can be bred to make baby tamed wolves.
					When wolves and baby wolves are hit by the player or the player's tamed wolves, they become angry.

Issues

Issues relating to "Wolf", "Wolves", or "Dog" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• If a tamed wolf is named with a name tag, its name is shown in the chat when killed.
• Wolves can teleport into transparent blocks.
• If the player attacks a wolf and then give the aggressive wolf food that it can eat (like rotten flesh), hearts appear as animals do when entering breeding mode, however, the wolf does not breed and continues attacking the player.
• In singleplayer, if the player punches a wild wolf and leaves its field of vision, it stares at the player and does not move at all. Going back into its range causes it to continue pursuing the player.
• An aggressive wolf can path-find like most mobs, but may sometimes try to jump across a 1–2 block gap to get to a player. A wolf cannot scale a two-block gap, so it falls, but may still manage to damage the player.
• If an owner kills their tamed wolf, the wolf still drops experience.
• Untamed wolves use their hostile appearance when they are attacking sheep, skeletons, foxes or rabbits. They change back once the targeted mob dies or gets out of their range.
• Attacking a wild wolf in Peaceful Mode aggravates it and it's group, however they do no damage.
• A wild baby wolf's head grows significantly when attacked.
• If the player attacks a wolf, but then moves a large distance away (e.g. 70 blocks), the wolf still appears hostile, but exhibits neutral behavior.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• Wolves that are tamed by the same player can accidentally attack each other while attacking another mob, leading to a fight.
• Wolves chase bats despite being unable to reach them.
• In Bedrock Edition, a glitched "red wolf" can be spawned using the command "/summon wolf ~ ~ ~ minecraft:tame_on" or “/summon wolf ~ ~ ~ minecraft:entity_born” (1st example spawns an adult “red wolf”, 2nd example spawns a “baby red wolf.” This has practical use, because “red wolves” cannot be bred). The wolf cannot be tamed or fed, though it's model color can be altered by using various dyes.
• In Bedrock Edition, a tamed wolf tilts its head toward the player when the player is holding bones, despite them no longer being able to accept bones.
• If a player feeds a sitting wolf and a standing wolf, the sitting one slides toward the standing one to breed. The sitting one remains in its new spot until moved.

• If a player uses the /effect command to give a tamed wolf with max health health boost 255, absorption 255 and Regeneration 255, the tamed wolf’s tail may begin spinning all the way around constantly, or it just points directly up. This is likely caused by an integer overflow.

Gallery

• 

  The first screenshot of wolves.

• 

  The second screenshot of wolves. Here, Jeb implemented sitting and has a new texture.

• 

  A tamed wolf shaking off water droplets after a swim.

• 

  A hostile wolf shaking off water droplets after a swim.

• 

  Wolves having a darker texture when they are swimming or when it's raining.

• 

  Tamed wolves with dyed collars.

• 

  A tamed wolf pup.

• 

  A wild wolf pup.

• 

  An adult wolf fighting a baby wolf.

• 

  A wolf killing a sheep.

• 

  A hostile wolf looking and running at the player.

• 

  A wolf and a cat sitting on carpet.

• 

  Secret skin with level 0 transparency found on the wolf collar.

• 

  Two tamed adult wolves and a pup

In other media

• 

  Official wolf artwork.

References

Entities

View at: Template:Entities/content [edit]