I have no idea about Ifan's wolf, but people playing as Ifan don't use him a lot, so I guess you'd need high summoning to make it viable; but if you have high summoning Incarnate is much more flexible, since wolf needs 1 SP.
(Which you won't have in Fort Joy at the start anyway)
Lucky Charm invested in early is much better than Thievery, but you will need 1 thiev to pickpocket at all.
If you cheese Alexander with Death Fog there is a chance to get a level 8 lucky charm item off him with only level 2/3 and LC 2/3.
Bear in mind all area loot is pregenerated to area level, but loot on enemies is generated according to their level. (and any additional drops added by LC follow the same rule).
