Irish Wolfhound

Irish poems and sagas are full of great hounds, and the dog most people picture when they read them is the Irish Wolfhound. The legendary hero Fionn mac Cumhaill is said to have kept a hound named Bran, and the Roman consul Quintus Aurelius Symmachus is said to have written of seven Irish dogs that astonished Rome in the 4th century. Beyond legend, large rough-coated hounds were clearly prized in Ireland for hunting wolves, deer and elk, and were given as gifts between chieftains and kings.

The breed's history also includes a near ending. As wolves disappeared from Ireland (the last is commonly said to have been killed in 1786) and great estates declined, the hounds lost their work and their numbers shrank. By the mid-19th century they were very rare. Captain George Augustus Graham, a Scottish army officer, began gathering the remaining dogs in the 1860s and brought in Scottish Deerhound, Great Dane and Borzoi blood to rebuild the type. Since 1902 a wolfhound has marched with the Irish Guards as regimental mascot.

The modern Wolfhound is gentle, dignified and friendly, summed up by the old saying 'gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked'. Most are calm indoors, polite with visitors and easygoing with other dogs. They are affectionate without being clingy, and many like to lie in the middle of the kitchen floor where everyone has to step over them.

Living with one requires space, a large vehicle, a very big bed, and acceptance that the time together will be short. It also requires respect for the sighthound instinct: a Wolfhound that spots a running deer or cat may be gone before you finish calling its name.