The Sophisticated Wolves mod aims to give wolves, and subsequently tamed dogs, better abilities in the game. It gives them a better sense of their surroundings so they are not completely dependent upon their owner. So that means while you may have tamed a wolf, it can still function in the environment without you and without you commanding them to just sit out of harm’s way. This mod is provides a significant improvement on how wolves can interact with the player once tamed and gives them more advanced abilities to suit the player’s needs.

Sophisticated wolves are actually separate animals from traditional wolves already in the game. They function under different parameters and so both types will still spawn in your world. However, you can make any standard wolf sophisticated by simply giving it a dog treat. Dog treats are easily crafted with two pieces of wheat and one piece of raw beef. The difference in taming sophisticated wolves versus regularly tamed wolves is giving them the dog treat instead of a bone, which you can still do as you normally would. You can also name your wolves with the dog tag that can be crafted with a piece of string and a piece of leather. What makes this significant and useful is that you will now be able to see some basic stats for your tamed sophisticated wolves with the tags. The color of the name that appears above your wolves will correlate to their health. If your wolf’s name shows white then it is healthy and when it shows red then they are injured and will need time to heal or your help to bring them back to health. Dog tags also function differently than typical nametags as you can just right click on a wolf to name them with the dog tag instead of needing an anvil.

These wolves will also vary in type based on the biome they are found or spawned in. This is another neat feature that improves on standard wolves as now they can have variations in their fur based on where you find them as well as simply giving more options of what wolves you might want to add to your pack. You might have a specific preference for types of wolves you want to keep with you and this mod gives you at least a bit of customization in that sense.

The Sophisticated Wolves will also no longer solely rely on you to feed them either. They will be able to go off and find their own food to regain their health or stamina. And they won’t be stuck by your side while you’re mining. Oftentimes with the existing behaviors of tamed wolves, they could easily end up way too close to you and that may cause issues in tight caves or even worse if you both happen to be close to a dangerous edge of a cliff and you accidentally cause them to fall to their deaths. Now they will wait at a further distance away from you until you finish your current tasks but will still protect you from enemies if you are in danger. And the intelligence of these wolves works perfectly as soon as you turn around to face them and they will then come back to you. These wolves will also growl if an enemy is near! So you can have them as an extra level of protection when you are mining or traveling anywhere at night. When a hostile mob is close by, you will hear them growling and you both can then start attacking when the moment strikes.