and how can you tell the difference?

This source says you can't really tell the difference with a single track. However, domestic dogs are spazzy and rarely go in a straight line. Sure sounds like my dog.

Wolf and dog tracks

Wolf tracks are BIG! About the size of a man's fist.

I don't know anything about this but I looked it up, aside from what has already been mentioned, the size and the fact that dogs move about in a random fashion, you need a reasonably large sample size. Wolves tend to put their back foot right in their front foot track and most dogs don't. Wolf tracks tend to be farther apart, since they often run long distances and their whole life is about efficiency. Also, and this is kinda weird, it seems that the center two toes in a dog track are slightly larger than the outer toes, whereas a wolf's toes are all the same size. Dude also said dogs tend to drag their toenails and wolves leave much neater tracks. Assuming this is actually real and not some fake news website, I'd say that's a dog. That assessment plus 2 bucks and tax will get you a slice of Casey's pizza.

If it looks like a REALLY huge dog track - then it might be a wolf...

quote BasecampMom: "If it looks like a REALLY huge dog track - then it might be a wolf..."

Yup, this is a known wolf track by a 6" handcuff key.

A lot depends on the time and location.

When you are out and about and in areas where there should be no dogs.

Most of the time they are wolf tracks.

I seen and looked at a lot of wolf and dog tracks a lot of times it is easy other times one is not so sure.

A small wolf leaves a small track a large dog leaves a large track and the opposite occurs .

My 100 pound lab leaves a fairly large track I have seen wolf tracks that make his look small.