The tale in the OP is bullcrap. A 65-lb boxer tangles with a wolf near the house, the fight carries across a creek where the boxer is subdued and held in the wolf's jaws, yet the boxer is fine except for a two puncture holes.
Yeah, right.
I didn't get the sense that it was a fight. I got the sense that the wolf got the drop on the Boxer from the start and dragged it across the stream.