6x8 SkinwalkerDogFormMain A skinwalker in canine form
6x8 SkinwalkerHumanFormMain Skinwalkers in human form
Species information
Type : Creature (Monster)
Notable distinctions : Can morph between human and canine form
Main weaknesses : Silver
Related to : Human
Historical information
Culture(s) of origin : Native American
Native range : Earth
Production information
Appearance : All Dogs Go to Heaven

Skinwalkers are a supernatural species with the ability to transform into canines. They are also cousins to werewolves, with whom they share several traits and weaknesses.


Skinwalkers possess the ability to transform between their original human form and a canine dog form at will. Skinwalkers also have enhanced and heightened sense of smell even in their human form. Similarly to their werewolf cousin, skinwalkers always eat the heart of their human victims, and skinwalkers can also turn humans into new skinwalkers through a bite. (All Dogs Go to Heaven)

6x8 SkinwalkerDogVision

Skinwalker canine form vision. (All Dogs Go to Heaven)

Like real dogs and like some other monsters such as vampires, skinwalkers too possess a pack mentality, living together in groups led by a pack leader, which in turn answers to skinwalkers higher in the skinwalker hierarchy. (All Dogs Go to Heaven)

Silver has the same harmful and weakening effects on skinwalkers as it does on werewolves. Silver chains are capable of more effectively restraining skinwalkers, and a skinwalker can be killed by stabbing or shooting it in the heart with silver. When a skinwalker is killed in its canine form, its dead body will revert to its human form. (All Dogs Go to Heaven)


Skinwalkers have presumably existed as a species for at least 10,000 years.[1] The species started with the Alpha Skinwalker, when the Alpha was created by Eve and subsequently became the progenitor for the skinwalker species. In modern times, skinwalkers seemed to be rare, as hunters such as the Winchesters were largely unfamiliar and rusty on their skinwalker knowledge. (All Dogs Go to Heaven)

In 2010 - 2011, when the Alphas and their monster children began increasing their numbers and building up armies for Eve's plans to overrun the Earth with monsters, the skinwalkers began organising and planning to multiply and increase their numbers by turning new skinwalkers; skinwalker packs planted sleeper agents in homes as family pets, which were to turn their owners into new skinwalkers when the signal was given. (All Dogs Go to Heaven) With Eve's death, the skinwalkers' plans for mass-conversions of humans into new skinwalker armies was presumably halted. (Mommy Dearest)

Hunts and encountersEdit

  • One of a skinwalker pack's sleeper agents for the skinwalker mass-conversion plans, Lucky, began killing those that threatened the family he had been placed with, which led to Sam and Dean Winchester discovering him and learning of the skinwalkers' plans. Through Lucky, the Winchesters succeeded in wiping out Lucky's skinwalker pack except for Lucky himself. (All Dogs Go to Heaven)

Known skinwalkersEdit


6x12 SkinwalkerLore

Information on skinwalkers in John's journal. (Like a Virgin)

In some Native American legends, a skinwalker is a person with the ability to transform into whatever animal he or she desires. Some legends state that a skinwalker must wear the pelt of the animal to transform.


  • The skinwalker profile in Supernatural: The Official Companion - Season 6 indicates that a skinwalker's animal form is not always a canine - it states that the animal form a person gains the ability to morph into after becoming a skinwalker can be any animal, depending on their personality; including cats, dogs hamsters, turtles and parakeets.


  1. This was the last time Eve, the creator of the skinwalkers, was on Earth. (...And Then There Were None)