- There are a total of nine dog variants in Minecraft, eight of which were introduced in the new Armored Paws update.
- The wolf variants include the pale wolf, woods wolf, ashen wolf, black wolf, chestnut wolf, rusty wolf, spotted wolf, striped wolf, and snowy wolf.
- You can tame a wolf with bones and breed them with meat. You can also equip wolf armor on a dog to protect them.
Minecraft only had a single wolf variant for the longest time. However, that is no longer the case as the Armored Paws update introduced eight new wolf variants and renamed the original ones as the Pale Wolves. So, if you haven’t explored all the biomes in the game yet, you may have only met a single wolf variant in the game. If you want to know where to find all the variants of wolves (aka dog variants) in Minecraft, go through this guide below.
Editor’s Note: last updated on July 30, 2025, to streamline the content and improve readability
Where to Find All Dog Variants in Minecraft
Before we begin, we have listed all the dog variants in the table below. We have then detailed how to find each wolf variant, including their spawn location, name, and appearance.
Wolf Variant Biome Pale Wolf Taiga Woods Wolf Forest Ashen Wolf Snowy Taiga Black Wolf Old Growth Pine Taiga Chestnut Wolf Old Growth Spruce Taiga Rusty Wolf Sparse Jungle Spotted Wolf Savanna Plateau Striped Wolf Wooded Badlands Snowy Wolf Grove
1. Pale Wolf
- Location: Taiga
Pale wolf or the regular wolf is the variant we’re all very familiar with. Its coat is mostly white with some darker details. However, it doesn’t spawn just anywhere. You may only find this puppy in the taiga Minecraft biomes. It’ll spawn in a default pack size of four.
2. Woods Wolf
- Location: Regular Forest biome
Woods wolf or dog is the most common wolf variant in the game. It has a mostly dark brown coat with all legs covered with cream-colored socks. They spawn in the regular forest biomes.
3. Ashen Wolf
- Location: Snowy Taiga
Ashen wolves kind of have a frozen look with thick fur to them. Their texture contains a grayish coat and white to bluish face and legs. These cuties spawn only in the snowy taiga biome.
4. Black Wolf
- Location: Old Growth Pine Taiga
The black wolf is pretty much completely black. It spawns in the old growth pine taiga, where giant spruce trees have leaves only at the top. These wolves appear in smaller packs of 2-4.
5. Chestnut Wolf
- Location: Old Growth Spruce Taiga
The chestnut dog has a cream-like colored coat with certain darker spots, as well as the face, paws, and tail being significantly darker. You will find this wolf variant in the old growth spruce taiga biome, where giant spruce trees have leaves covering much more of the trunk than in the old growth pine taiga biome. They also spawn in smaller packs of 2-4.
6. Rusty Wolf
- Location: Sparse Jungle
The rusty wolf is a beautiful wolf variant with an orange-reddish coat and white ears, snout, and paws. You can find this wolf in packs of 2-4 and only in the sparse jungle biomes.
7. Spotted Wolf
- Location: Savanna Plateau
The spotted wolf is the most unique wolf variant. Its coat has a mix of blue, orange, and white colors, with the face being blue and the legs and tail being orange and white. This wolf variant is also kind of rare due to the fact that it spawns only in the savanna plateau biome. However, their packs are larger and consist of 4-8 wolves.
8. Striped Wolf
- Location: Wooded Badlands
The striped dog has a bright cream and yellowish coat with lots of darker stripes across the body. The face, paws, and tail are also darker in color. These hyena-like wolves spawn in the wooded badlands biome in packs of 4-8 wolves.
9. Snowy Wolf
- Location: Grove biome
Finally, we have the snowy wolf. This Minecraft wolf variant has a white coat with some purplish and blueish details. It spawns in the grove biome, and unlike other wolves, it’s far rarer since it spawns alone.
How to Tame and Breed Wolves in Minecraft
Now you can go looking out for the wolves while carrying bones with you, since those are the only materials required to tame a wolf in Minecraft. You can easily obtain bones by defeating one of the most commonly found Minecraft mobs, skeletons. However, remember that taming a wolf in the game will require two or three of them.
When a wolf is tamed, hearts appear along with a red collar around its neck, confirming that you were successful. Now, you can make them sit, stand, follow you, and even breed them. In order to breed wolves in Minecraft, you’ll need two such tamed animals and two pieces of any meat.
To breed the dogs, feed each of the wolves the meat, and hearts will appear again, which signifies they’re in love mode. Soon after, a small puppy appears with a red collar on its neck.
How to Craft Wolf Armor in Minecraft
Once you’ve made a new friend, you will surely think of protecting them from accidental situations. So, why not build them an armor piece? It won’t take long to gather the required materials because all you need is an armadillo in Minecraft.
Mostly found in the Savanna and Badlands, these mobs are the only source of Scutes in the game. So grab your brush and get six Armadillo Scutes by brushing the mob. Place the Armadillo Scutes in the arrangement shown in the crafting table above to craft a wolf armor in Minecraft.
Now that you know where to find each of the dog variants, make sure to tame the wolf and breed the cute doggos. Wolves have been improved significantly in the recent Minecraft 1.21 update, and they rightfully deserve all the love. That said, which wolf variant is your favorite in the game now? Tell us in the comments below.
To spawn a wolf of any variant in Minecraft, you can use the command: /summon wolf ~ ~ ~ {variant:”minecraft:<variant_name>”}, where you can place any name of the variant you want to spawn.
You can easily dye a wolf armor using a dye of any color in Minecraft. To further customize the armor, you can also use a combination of dyes to give it a very unique color.
Wolf armor can be enchanted with the following enchantments: Thorns, Protection, Fire Protection, Blast Protection, Unbreaking, Mending, Curse of Binding, and Curse of Vanishing.
