How to Tame a Wolf in Minecraft: How Many Bones It Takes

Hold a bone and click a wild wolf with it. Each bone has a 1 in 3 chance to tame it. Keep feeding bones until red hearts appear and the wolf gets a red collar; it’s now your dog. On average that takes 3 bones, but bring a few spares.

This page covers taming and caring for your wolf. For spawn rules, variants and stats, see the wolf mob page.

Finding wolves

Wolves live in forests and taigas, usually in small packs. Since 1.20.5 there are nine variants, each tied to a biome: the pale wolf in taigas, woods wolves in forests, ashen wolves in snowy taigas, spotted wolves on savanna plateaus, and others in the jungle, badlands and old growth taigas. Every variant tames the same way.

Don’t hit a wild wolf by accident. The whole pack turns on you.

Getting bones

Skeletons drop 0 to 2 bones each, so a night of fighting usually covers a whole pack. Desert pyramid and dungeon chests often contain bones, and fishing occasionally pulls one up.

Taming steps

1. Hold bones and walk up to a wolf. It won’t attack unless provoked.
2. Click it with a bone. Gray smoke means it didn’t take; try again.
3. When hearts appear and a red collar shows up, it’s tamed.
4. Click it with an empty hand (or anything that isn’t food) to make it sit or follow.

A sitting wolf stays put, which is how you keep it safe at home. A following wolf teleports to you when you get more than 12 blocks ahead, as long as there’s a safe spot to land.

Caring for your wolf

• Health: the tail shows it. A high tail means full health; a low one means it’s hurt. Wild wolves’ tails don’t change.
• Healing: feed it any meat. Rotten flesh heals it without the hunger effect players get, so it’s the cheapest dog food.
• Collar color: use any dye on your wolf to change its collar.
• Wolf armor: craft it from 6 armadillo scutes (collected by brushing an armadillo) and put it on your wolf. It takes damage in the wolf’s place until it breaks, and you repair it with more scutes.

Breeding

Feed meat to two tamed wolves at full health and they’ll breed. The puppy is born tamed and belongs to you. Breeding a few gives you a pack, which is a strong early-game defense.

How they fight

Tamed wolves attack whatever you attack and whatever attacks you. They won’t go after creepers, which is good news, and they don’t attack ghasts either. Standing wolves will attack skeletons on their own, and skeletons run from them. Wolves do get killed, though, so make them sit at home before a risky trip like a Nether fortress run.

If you want a pet that scares off creepers instead, tame a cat. More animal guides are in the guides hub.