Wolf

 Wolves  are mobs that can be allied with the player once tamed by being fed bones with the "use" key. They will shake themselves dry when they reach land after a swim or if drenched by rain, or otherwise come in contact with water. Wolves are 1 block in height, 2 in length, and 1 in width (1 x 2 x 1).

Like most mobs, wolves are vulnerable to drowning, suffocation, falling, contact with cacti or lava, and will take damage from being set on fire or coming in contact with attacking hostile mobs.

Spawning
Wolves will spawn in all difficulty levels and only in forest and taiga biomes. Wolves can also be spawned in Creative mode with a wolf spawn egg. Wolves ONLY spawn untamed, not hostile or tamed. Only baby wolves spawn tamed.

Behavior and appearance


Depending on if and how they are interacted with, wolves can be in one of three states: wild (untamed), hostile, or tamed. Tamed wolves can be bred to create a baby wolf using Porkchops (raw or cooked), raw beef, steak, raw chicken, cooked chicken, and rotten flesh.

All wolves will appear to 'scare' an ocelot, but it's actually the normal "coming too close" behavior they display with players. Tamed wolves do not appear to scare, or fight with, tamed ocelots (cats).


 * Wild wolves have white fur, and their eyes consist of one white pixel, black pupils, and a drooping tail. They are neutral towards the player and spawn untamed in packs of 1-8, occasionally coordinating attacks on nearby sheep while roaming around. Randomly dropped blocks of wool (especially in a Pine Forest biome) can be good indicator of their presence. Untamed wolves will tilt their head to the side to indicate their interest in a bone or meat held by a nearby player. Untamed wolves will become hostile toward the player if the player attacks them.


 * Hostile wolves can be distinguished from their constant growling and appearance: the tail becomes straight, the 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. They will coordinate their attacks on a player that has injured a wild wolf in the pack, and will not revert from this state once aggravated, unless the player dies and respawns. If a wolf is hit and becomes hostile, but then takes fall damage, it will stay hostile, but not attack. Tamed wolves cannot become aggravated. Aggravated wolves will attack any and all players in range.


 * Tame wolves (often called dogs) can be distinguished from wild or hostile wolves from their eyes as they change to look less aggressive (two white pixels and one black pixel), as well as a red collar(collars can be dyed as of snapshot 12w34a) around their neck. The collar can be dyed if the player uses any color of dye on the wolf. When told to sit (right-clicking), tamed wolves will remain in place while the player is free to move around. Sitting wolves will never despawn, no matter how far away the player wanders, and not if the player leaves the game or goes to sleep. They also will resume following the player when he/she returns and tells them to stand up again. Friendly wolves will also bark occasionally at any nearby players. When standing, these wolves will engage any mob the player hits with melee attacks (the notable exception being Creepers). If a player attacks wild wolves, tame wolves will kill the wild ones. If a group of tame wolves are engaging a mob the player has hit, and another mob causes damage to the player, half of the pack will begin to attack the new mob while the other half finishes off the old mob. However, occasionally the tame wolves following the player will growl like wild attacking wolves, although they won't advance. Sitting wolves will idly observe their surroundings and will not attack anything unless the player is hit, in which case they will engage the player's attacker in defense. Like their wild counterparts, tamed wolves will tilt their head to beg for a meat held by a nearby player. A tamed wolf will even eat rotten flesh. If a tamed wolf's health is low, it will whine in a plead for food. The tail will also get lower the more it gets hurt. Tamed wolves will sit when the player right-clicks them. They will remain sitting unless the player clicks them again or is attacked by a non-environmental entity.

Movement and hazards
In general, tamed wolves (dogs) follow the player in a wandering manner (as opposed to walking directly towards him/her) to avoid falling, but will continue to jump and move around even if the player stands still.


 * Wolves (wild, hostile, and tamed) now have AI, so they can find paths to their targets if attacking, even in craters. They will also navigate along the edges of cliffs in the same sense, or if they are following the player. However, they can still take damage from gradual descents.
 * Wolves will stand up and follow the player if pushed into water or injured while sitting.
 * Wolves can navigate and turn around in 1 x 1 horizontal tunnels.
 * Tamed wolves can be put on a "leash" by right-clicking with a fishing rod.
 * They are not sufficiently wary of lava or flame, and are prone to set themselves on fire by wandering too close.
 * Like other pets, they can block the player's movement in tight quarters and can activate pressure plates (a hazard if the player's structures' doors are operated by pressure plates as hostile mobs can then enter). Also, they will frequently bump into the player, and may even push the player over ledges. Make them sit before approaching any steep drops.
 * Tamed wolves will attack any animal the player start to attack, so be careful not to slap your cattle if you do not want it to be killed by your wolves after that. The baby chicken are an exception (maybe because you almost have to hurt them when you throw eggs very fast).

Teleportation
Tamed wolves will teleport to the player if a large enough gap (roughly a 20 x 20 x 10 block area) is created between them and the player with a few exceptions.


 * Teleporting resets the focus of a tamed wolf, so if a wolf is attacking a mob and teleports beside a player, it will resume 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.

A wolf will not teleport:
 * If the wolf has been ordered to sit
 * Exception: The wolf is likely to teleport if it is injured while sitting (it will no longer be sitting after it teleports). A dramatic example is if a wolf sitting outside is struck by lightning, in which case they will be on fire when they appear.
 * If the wolf is in a minecart
 * If the player is swimming/boating in deep water (but they will teleport as the player approaches land or shallow one block deep water)
 * If there are only transparent blocks (like ice, glass) around the player
 * If the player enters a portal and travels to the Nether or the End, instead remaining in the Overworld until the player returns. However, you can bring wolves to the Nether or End by pushing them in the portal first.
 * If the player is flying a certain distance above the land

Combat
Tamed wolves (when standing) always follow the player around the Overworld, teleporting to him/her if they become too distant. They will attack any non-environmental entities that injure the player - even idle sitting wolves will stand up and descend upon an attacker to defend the player when he/she is hit by someone else or a hostile mob. When the player hits a mob or another player with melee attacks (non-arrow), tamed wolves will engage in combat with it, focusing on one target at a time and switching to another only when the first has been killed. Huge armies of wolves are so strong, the player might not even need a sword. Note that if a tamed wolf kills a mob, it will drop experience orbs for the player to take, as any mob killed by the player.

The notable exception to the rule is the Creeper. Tamed wolves will never engage a creeper even if the player hits the creeper.

Although, If you throw a bone at a wild wolf, it will start to attack you. If you kill a wolf in a pack, the packs eyes will turn red and attack you all at once.

Good uses for Wolves
Wolves are best at attacking hostile mobs, Zombies and Skeletons. But Skeletons can still shoot the wolf, causing damage. They have a bit more trouble with the Spider and are sometimes hurt by the combat. However, Cave Spiders do not seem to cause poisoning to wolves.

Wolves are also viable for use against Zombie Pigman, however they will require some player assistance.

Wolves will attack Endermen though this is likely to result in the wolf being hurt -- so ensure that before you use your wolves to fight endermen you accumulate lots of Rotten Flesh.

Wolves are very useful in PvP because they will attack other players if you hit them. This means that the wolves can hit the player with melee while you shoot at the player with your Bow.

What if you're attacked by a wolf?
If another player's wolf attacks you without the player's consent, and you can easily get back to that location, just let it kill you, then get your items back. Killing the wolf would cause a loss for the other player.

On a PvP server, wolves are sometimes used in battles. The difficulty of killing the wolves or evading them depends on the situation. If the player is in an enclosed area and does not have much armor, a few wolves will kill him very quickly. Outdoors, especially on ice, the player can escape easily and make use of ranged weapons to kill the wolves. Jumping and running on ice will make the player move much faster than the wolves, and pouring lava or lighting fires behind will be effective ways of killing the wolves. Creating a pillar will allow the player to kill the wolves from a distance while being protected, but the wolves' owner will have an easy target. Sometimes, server lag can cause wolves to jump at the player but miss repeatedly, making it easy for a player to kill a pack even with a low-power sword, much to the frustration of the wolves' owner.

It is possible to escape an attacking wolf by just running/sprinting away. After some time, the player should be able to escape the range of a wolf. This could be recommended if there is more than one wolf in the area, and/or if you have little weapon power.

Taming

 * For a more thorough tutorial about taming wolves, go to: Tutorials/Wolves.



First, find an untamed wolf or wolf pack. Each individual wolf can be tamed by feeding (right-clicking) it bones. Usually, feeding the wolf will cause a puff of hearts. If the wolf is also tamed, it will get a red collar and (if not swimming) the wolf will sit down. Each bone has a 1 in 3 chance of taming the wolf.

Once tamed, a wolf will not accept any more bones. Note that the number of bones required is random - some wolves respond to a single bone while others may take more, you need 12 bones to have a 99% confidence level that you will be able to tame a wolf. . Currently, there is no limit to the number of wolves the player can tame.

Health and feeding


A wolf's tail will rise and lower 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 the wolf has (100 degrees for 100%, or 10 hearts; 90 degrees for 90%, etc.). Health can be restored by right-clicking a wolf with any type of meat. Rotten flesh will not induce the "hunger" potion effect (Food poisoning) on a wolf.

Splash potions of healing or regeneration can be thrown at wolves to heal them.

Since wild wolves have a maximum health of 4 hearts, their tails will always remain significantly lower than those of tamed wolves, which gain 100% health (10 hearts) instantly upon being successfully tamed. Puppies will not gain 100% health when born. They must be fed in order to achieve max health. All the meat has not the same effect on a tamed wolf health. For example, to get a perfectly healthy puppy, you should give him 6 raw chicken or 5 raw pork or 4 raw beef or 3 zombie flesh or 2 of any cooked meat.

Attempting to feed a tamed wolf when its health is full will start the "love mode" animation instead.

You can change a tamed wolf's collar color by right clicking with a dye.

Breeding


Wolves can 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. Once you have two or more wolves, breeding them is a much better way to increase your wolf army's population than taming more wolves, but keep in mind that wolves are born at low health and should be fed when they're born. It's best to feed wolves rotten flesh, because you have no other use for it and the wolves are okay with eating it.

The behavior of puppies is the same as tamed wolves, with few exceptions. They do not attack as well as wolves due to their size. Their appearance is the same, except that their body is smaller (not their head). This is the same for all baby animals except for the ocelot kittens and baby Villagers. They also have a red collar. Their bark (could also be considered as a whine) is high pitched. Puppies cannot be wild or hostile. Puppies spawn at a low health but have the same maximum health as a normal wolf. When two different player's wolves are bred together the owner of the puppy is selected at random.

Bugs

 * Sometimes, tamed wolves will run sideways. This is very rare and unseen in wild and hostile wolves.(witnessed in 1.3.2)
 * When your wolf sits for too long without standing, it may become unable to stand up forever. And if the player hits it, it will hop towards the player. (caused by chanced owner)
 * Often in Survival, upon returning from the Nether, some or all of your sitting wolves will teleport to the player
 * Tamed wolves will often teleport to players even when sitting. (Confirmed in 1.3.2).
 * Wolves will spawn next to the player when in a supported biome, sometimes even while underground. Although they are untamed, they follow the player until the player kills them.
 * A tamed wolf that falls far enough away from the player to teleport back may still take damage upon landing.
 * If the player tames a wolf while it's in the middle of jumping, the wolf will go into a "sitting" pose, but continue to bounce up and down indefinitely. This can be fixed by making the wolf stand.
 * Wolves can push the player out of the player's bed, but the player will still sleep. (This applies to all mobs)
 * Tamed wolves can teleport inside transparent blocks such as slabs. This can mean they can get stuck, or not follow the player.
 * It is possible to push a wolf into a block and therefore suffocate it, done by having two wolves sit, and then pushing one wolf by the other into a solid block. Wolves lose health while in the block, so make sure to be careful!
 * If a tamed wolf attacks a mob and the player right-clicks on the wolf, it jumps towards the mob in sitting position.
 * If a sheep spawns under a tree and is unable to move because its head is in the leaves, wolves will lock on but not attack. They may be aiming for the head which is in the leaves, and therefore appear to look at the sheep.
 * If an untamed wolf is attacked by any mob, it will still attack the aggressor, but they won't switch to their hostile texture.
 * Wolves will remain sitting, although untamed, if a player has logged out and back in again.
 * Tamed and untamed wolves will become black when in low light or rain.
 * Sometimes, if the player is in a boat and a tamed wolf is following the player, it will teleport into the boat and will instantly destroy the boat or kill the player.
 * Sometimes a tamed wolf will despawn in SMP.
 * In SSP and SMP, shooting an arrow into the air and being hit by it will cause a tamed wolf to stand up for a brief moment. They can move around during this time.
 * In SSP and SMP, killing an untamed wolf with one hit (with an enchanted diamond sword) will not cause surrounding wolves to attack the player.
 * Hostile wolves still tilt their heads like they are begging when the player holds a bone. (Only in SP Any game mode.)
 * Tamed wolves will continue to attack hostile iron golems after the iron golems have turned passive towards the player. Requires a restart of the client to fix.
 * Wolves may stand but not move sometimes if the player commands it to sit.
 * if a player tames and breeds wolves, there is a glitch where if the player were to kill another players wolf in SMP, their own wolves would start to attack them and growl as if they were hostile. - this seems to only happen when breeding.
 * Sometimes, when a sitting tamed wolf gets pushed into water, it will stand and swim out of the water. The wolf will seem to be standing even though it's sitting. It won't move until the player exits the map and rejoins.
 * Wild wolves can still be put into love mode, but won't breed.
 * When players make their tamed wolf kill another wolf, they will growl but not attack the player or turn hostile.
 * Feeding rotten flesh to a wolf can cause food poisoning to the player, even though they aren't eating the food themselves (sometimes the eating animation will appear briefly as though the player is "finishing off" the flesh it fed to the wolf). This can be avoided by having a full hunger meter before feeding. (Observed in multiplayer 1.2.5.)
 * A wolf in "love mode" has an insatiable appetite and will continue to feed if fed by the player so be careful not to deplete your food reserves when feeding a pack of wolves. (Observed in multiplayer 1.2.5.)
 * this is a big bug that needs to be addressed; tamed wolves sitting may not be able to get up, and if hit, all tamed wolves will turn on the owner, but they will look the same as tamed wolves. and will not stop and the player has to kill the wolves and tame new ones. (Confirmed in: Beta 1.6.6, Official, 1.0.0 1.2.5 1.3.1 and 1.4.5, (It appears to happen almost every time the player updates the game now). But unknown to Occur in other Versions). Confirmed to occur on the Xbox 360 version (Xbox MC 1.0, The equivalent Version of Beta 1.6.6.) of the game as well.
 * In Minecraft multiplayer, when some dogs (wolves) are sitting and some standing, after killing another player with the standing wolves, accidentally attacking the player's own wolf, and the player attacked managing to kill at least one wolf, the wolves will growl either at the attacked player or owner, all dogs which were sitting in an enclosed section unable to attack the attacked player will stand and refuse to sit unless hit once (most likely because this action makes them stand to begin with) and only then will sit when right clicked. When the player goes far enough to save the chunk and comes back, all dogs will have vanished.
 * In SMP, if a player attacks a tamed wolf that they do not own, the wolf will remain hostile to the attacker until the wolf dies, and the wolf will sometimes not attack mobs that the owner attacks or defend the owner.
 * When a wild, untamed wolf is attacked and becomes hostile to the player, and the player escapes the attack by outrunning the hostile wolf in fast enough means, such as by boat or minecart, and the hostile wolf is out of sight, when the player returns the wolf will still have the hostile texture and will make growling sounds but will not attack the player. (Confirmed in 1.2.5)
 * If the player moves far away enough, even if the player told them to sit. they will randomly teleport to the player. It can be dangerous, like if the player is by lava. (confirmed in 1.3.1)
 * Sometimes in Multiplayer, if a tamed wolf is attacked by the player or another player, it will start making growling noises like an untamed, hostile wolf. The tamed wolves won't attack the player, nor act any differently than normal tamed wolves, but will keep growling until it is killed.
 * In 12w40a/12w40b wet invisible wolves have wrong texture. They can get random texture including texture of squid, cow, zombie, creeper or even item or block sprite (items.png, terrain.png).
 * Sometimes in SMP, A wolf (tamed or untamed) that has been attacked and killed by a player will "leave behind" its growling noises, even though there is no wolf.

•Tamed wolves appear to bite food out of player's hand. (Even though player is not feeding wolf) (Seen in minecraft 1.4.5) (SMP)
 * Attacking a tamed wolf in SMP will make the wolf hostile toward its attacker, and growling noises will be heard. The wolf's texture, however, will not change to the hostile wolf texture.
 * Sometimes tamed wolves will sit and can never get up, even if the player has not sat the tamed wolves down.
 * Tamed wolves, unless sat down, can NOT be contained in a closed place. They can go through doors and even fences following the player -but they won't do it to attack the cattle if they are outside the fences when the player attack it.
 * On the latest version of the Xbox 360 edition, if a tame wolf is saved from drowning the split second before it is about to die, its entire body will turn black.
 * If a wolf is tamed the moment it is hit by you, it will be tamed , but any other wolves that are owned by you will attack your newly tamed wolf and your newly tamed wolf will attack back at your other wolves until the game realizes it is YOUR tamed wolf. So the game stops the fight between your wolves. (Confirmed in 1.4.2 and up to snapshot 13w06a)
 * Very rarely, a wolf can vanish without a trace, and can never be found again.

Trivia

 * Wolves appear to be based on the arctic wolf.
 * If the player orders a wolf to attack an untamed member of its own pack, it will kill it, but turn hostile towards the player. However, it will not attack them.
 * When a wolf attacks a big (2 ) slime, they simply push the slime around. This can also happen with magma cubes.
 * With 2.5 times the health and double the attack power, tamed wolves are 5 times stronger than wild ones, and can kill 4 one at a time without dying.
 * Wolves are the first official tameable mob in Minecraft, the second being the ocelots.
 * Jeb has said that wolves may have color variations, but he said he would "have to run that through Notch". (as of 1.3.2, and earlier, there are no alternately colored wolf textures in the minecraft.jar.)
 * Wolves do not trample crops (but they can destroy it by jumping on it), and they do not make step sounds.
 * If the player attacks another player on SMP, even if PvP is off, a tamed wolf will attack the opposing player. They will continue to attack even if made to sit by the wolf's owner.
 * Similarly, if a player attacks a tamed wolf that isn't their own, then the wolf will attack.
 * If a wolf is in a downward water current, they will not float and, if not removed, will drown.
 * Wolves, Iron Golems and the Ender Dragon are the only mobs that can be hostile to the player on peaceful mode.
 * Wolves can teleport into transparent blocks. Therefore, it is not recommended to bring a wolf underground or near lava/fire.
 * Water brakes have no effect on wolves falling from high positions.
 * Wolves, silverfish, ocelots, Villagers and bats are currently the only five mobs that don't drop anything except for xp when killed.
 * Wolves will turn black when wet (rain, water etc.). Upon finding a dry location (shelter, land, etc.) they will shake themselves dry.
 * If the player creates a new world and tames a wolf, then logs in under a different username, the wolf will not obey the player.
 * If the player attacks another player or mob while the wolf is in follow mode, even if it is enclosed then freed after, it will attack that mob or player. Whereas if it is sitting and the player attacks a mob or player, it won’t attack them, even if the player let them start walking again.
 * As the collars are now a different layer, when effected by Invisibility potion effect, the collar will still be visible.
 * A light gray collar is the closest color to an untamed wolf.
 * In 1.4.5 the wolves(dogs) will chase bats as if they were butterflies in real life.
 * Wolves have 2 unused sound files called "howl1" and "howl2". They seem to be a sort of wolf/werewolf howling loudly.
 * if a player hits himself or herself with an arrow from his or her bow the players tamed wolves with attack him or her
 * Wolves can be affected by certain splash potions, such as invisibility. It is unknown if this is intentional or a bug.
 * Wolves can usually be found in the arctic biome.