Irish Wolfhound x Lab

[TonyLee]

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[Pops]

give em a shot. you never know what will do the job.

[BMC97756]

The Wolf hound went extinct before the 1900 and the "new" wolf hound is not even related to the old one (its perinees/dane crosses linebreed) and is not a hunting dog and can not run like it should..

[Pops]

the modern irish wolfhound was created in the 1860s by a british army captain named Graham. he used some large dogs from ireland of unknown ancestry, great dane & scottish deerhound. the dane gives them a fair nose (not like a hound but fair). this dog was used in creating some early american staghounds (1870s-1910s) by crossing w/greyhounds. the IW themselves were used as kill dogs on coyote & wolves (not the huge canadians introduced out west, but native plains & timbers 50-70#). it is still used for hogdogs in australia. it runs just fine (not as fast as a grey or stag but faster than a lot of other breeds like labs).

[BMC97756]

the dane gives them a fair nose (not like a hound but fair). this dog was used in creating some early american staghounds (1870s-1910s) by crossing w/greyhounds.

The stags were here a lot earlier than 1870.. I have seen greys and Stags run and they have a true double gate and a IW dose not, if you just want kill then a 85lbs stag can kill any yote alive as I have seen them do it many times.. Bigger is not better it is slower and a hunter back then would not feed a 100lbs+ dog that only killed as they are not useful as a smaller dog who catches and kills.. I seen one 80lbs stag kill 3 yotes in less then 2hrs single handed last week, so if that dog can do it I dont see why the old timers would go huge when large works fine..

[Pops]

if you just want kill then a 85lbs stag can kill any yote alive

really, even the exceptionally large 70-75# ones killed in the northeastern states in the last several years.

Bigger is not better it is slower and a hunter back then would not feed a 100lbs+ dog that only killed

some people did in fact feed them because the IW (and the dane for that matter) was used as kill dogs not just on yotes but also on wolves the greys, deer & stags had bayed up. these were rougher dogs than we know now and the wolves were smaller timbers & such that normally topped out at 50-75#.
they weren't staghounds in the sense that we use the word now. for example custer's dogs were what we would now call scottish deerhounds (he used the term scotch staghound). it was common then to interchange the word deer & stag although properly speaking at the time a staghound (w/o the word scotch in front of it) referred to a scenthound rather like a big foxhound & is still such in britain. it was only later that we here started referring to crossbred lines that included deerhound & greyhound as stags. at the time the IW was crossed w/ greys to try to produce a dog that could rundown the wolves (& coyotes) & kill them. the best obviously would have been bred from. also it would be difficult for most people to tell the difference between a 3/4IW 1/4grey, an F1 deerXgrey & a linebred deerXgrey even today. in fact no one knowledgeable about stags disputes that a SMALL amount of IW blood found it's way into the "breed." for that matter a it is pretty certain various lurchers contributed when they proved out in the field.

[pigstickndude]

dont know about their history or nothing, but i say give it a whirl. i got two pup that are half iw & half pit. accidental breeding of course. the pit is my 2nd best catch dog, and the iw was a buddy of mines out on a ranch i hunt. i let him tag along on several hunts & he could go all night with no problem, and is an extremely gritty dog & picked up hog hunting very quickly. also was as fast if not faster to a bark than my curs. the pup is an ugly lil sucker but i plan on giving them a shot at it cause i believe that looks and breed arent what catches hogs, its desire & if a dog has the desire there is a spot for it somewhere on your team. good luck.

[DerekE]

It'll eat a lot and there are probably a lot breeds or crosses that'll make better dogs and have a higher consistency of turning out. How much time will you have in determining whether this dog will turn out that you could be spending on a pup that MOST LIKELY will turn out. JMO
Derek

[waylon]

hell give it a try, i saw a chow bluetick once who was a hard hog dog. he was ugly and mean but when the other dogs bayed they would not fight much till he showed up if he was behind and he would drive in and cath, plus i seen him start and older track in front of some coon hound bred plotts,he wasnt the fastest or best track dog ect ect but all around he was a keeper

[jaydogger]

Wolfhound crosses are very popular in Oz as finger/holders. Easy going and layed back dogs at home for the most part, add some bully breed to them for a little more heart and hardness.

[bloodmoon]

Given that the pups are on the way, it's not like you have any work sourcing dogs or planning a cross.....Take a pup and give it a try. No dog comes with a concrete guarantee, just likliehood. Liver shunt is a real problem in IW's and I'd favour Scottish Deerhound over them anyday (I have a friend near Melbourne in Oz who breeds them and they take out Blue Flyers at 40 mph) but if there are no health problems with parents you may get a useful dog out of it. Cheers!

[PLOTTMAN55]

If he acts good i would try him.

[captd]

By the way does anyone know what happened to custers hounds, never been mentioned in any books, or wether they were along that day.

[Pops]

most of his hounds (perhaps as many as 30 at one time) stayed at the post when he went to the little bighorn, except possibly for a couple of favorites. the ones left behind were taken by various officers or given to local ranchers for hunting wolves, coyotes & other fast game. some lines claimed to be bred from them survived up to the 30s.