His most conspicuous trait was an ability to scent the wind and forecast it a night in advance.

No matter how breathless the air when he dug his nest by tree or bank, the wind that later blew inevitably found him to leeward, sheltered and snug.
And not only did he learn by experience, but instincts long dead became alive again.

The domesticated generations fell from him.

In vague ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed, to the time the wild dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest and killed their meat as they ran it down.

It was no task for him to learn to fight with cut and slash and the quick wolf snap.