somehow the footsteps mod is confusing it for a bipedal entity, I was wondering if this was an issue that could be fixed on your side since vanilla wolves don't crash this way, such as if the entity is inheriting the wrong class:

PaintNinja/Presence-Footsteps-Forge#11

if not, what exactly would I have to do to prevent desert wolves from spawning? just to workaround the issue. the wiki does not explain how they spawn naturally at all

It´s crashing in their code, so most likely nothing I can do about it.

They spawn in Limestone Crags, Limestone Mountains & Sand Hills.