Natural History

This bitch, named Cheevra, was featured in Country Life Illustrated (28 December 1901):

Situated right in the centre of the Cheshire hunting country, within easy access of all the meets of four packs of hounds, in the prettiest part of the ” Vale,” is Kidnal House, close to Malpas Station. Here is the home of the far-famed Cheevra, the most prolific and profitable of all Irish wolfhound bitches. It is a fact well known in the doggy kingdom that within the last few years this mother of a race of canine giants, now nine years old, has had seven litters, containing fifty-two pups, all told, of which she has reared forty-six, including two such champions as Sportella and the Marquis of Donegal, both bred by that most excellent judge and owner of Irish wolfhounds, Mrs Arthur Gerard, who rivals her husband in her keenness of appreciation of the characteristics of this grand race of dogs, that owes so much of its present state of perfection to the great and constant care bestowed upon its development by these two enthusiasts, who both have learnt their lesson from the great master of the breed, Captain Graham, to whom is all the glory of having restored, resuscitated, and almost re-created the ancient Irish wolfhound. It is only those who have made the attempt to restore a lost breed, or apparently lost breed, that know what such an attempt means (pg. 850).

There are several other smooth wolfhounds featured in this article, some of which appear to be white with spots.

Everyone knows that these dogs were reconstructed with some Great Dane blood, but they also very strongly resemble the “deer greyhounds” that were fairly common throughout Great Britain and Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Deer greyhounds were large greyhounds that were often crossed with mastiffs. They were used almost exclusively for coursing red deer. The last surviving strain of deer greyhound is the “Highland deer greyhound” or Scottish deerhound.

The original Irish wolfhound essentially died out in the late eighteenth century. Unfortunately, many pseudo-experts will come up with depictions of deer greyhounds from the nineteenth century and will claim that these are Irish wolfhounds.

I’m sorry, folks, but a deer greyhound isn’t an Irish wolfhound, even though it appears to look like one.

The modern Irish wolfhound was recreated by Captain Graham. I don’t want to see another pseudo-historian post another link to a what is likely a deer greyhound and claim that this is evidence that the Irish wolfhound survived the eighteenth century.

There is some evidence that some of the old strain lived on into the nineteenth century, but Graham never used those dogs. He used Scottish deerhound, Great Dane, borzoi, and Tibetan Mastiff (for some reason).

The best account I have read of what happened to the original wolfhound can be found in Mark Derr’s A Dog’s History of America. It turns out that George Washington wanted to import these dogs to Virginia to control the wolf problem that was destroying our nascent sheep industry. He contacted Sir Edward Newenham, a protestant Irish nobleman who favored some level of home rule in Ireland.  The only confirmed dog he could find was a bitch in the north of the Ireland. The ones that Lord Altamont had were Great Dane crosses.

It was widely accepted– even in the nineteenth century– that the Irish wolfhound was a recreation.  It is not the same as the ancient Irish wolf dog. It is also not a deer greyhound.

These smooth-coated dogs disappeared from the Irish wolfhound gene pool. I certainly would have mistaken them for deer greyhounds.

But people need to understand that deer greyhounds were much more ubiquitous in the nineteenth century. If someone has a painting of a supposed wolfhound that exists before Graham started his recreation breeding program, it is more likely a deer greyhound, not a relict population of Irish wolfhound.