Good thing about dire wolf:

-they have a decent amount of health

-they can wear hat/helmet which mean they can get much more amor compare to saddle and you can skin the helmet they are wearing if you want

-they can jump very far and fast which mean you can basically just keep spamming jump and your dire wolf will move like sonic

-THEY DONT NEED SADDLE TO MOUNT

-they deal alot of damage(for a medium size creature)

They havest pelt really good

-very good cave creature to farm chitin

-They can detect low health enermy,creature and explorer note

-they can be carry by giant eagle bird thing(i forgot the name)

-in a pack of 3, they can buff themself up by howling(which is very good)

Bad thing about dire wolf:

-because they can jump very fast and far, you can sometime accidentally jump off a cliff or into lava in the cave

-they cant carry much weight which mean you gonna need an other creature to carry stuff when farming

That all i know for now,if there more that i missed, just sudmit it , if you going to do cave or killing alpha or creature, dire wolf is one of your best choice