page_title: Irish wolfhound
section_title: Modern wolfhound
hierarchical_section_title: Irish wolfhound / History / Modern wolfhound
caption_attribution_description: Русский: The book of dogs Washington, D. C.,The National geographic society[c1919]
context_page_description: The Irish Wolfhound is a historic sighthound dog breed from Ireland that has, by its presence and substantial size, inspired literature, poetry and mythology. Like all sighthounds, it was used to pursue game by speed; it was also famed as a guardian dog, specializing in protection against and for the hunting of wolves. The original dog-type was presumed extinct by most knowledgeable authors but recreated specifically for the canine fancy mainly by Captain George A. Graham in the late 19th century. The modern breed, classified by recent genetic research into the Sighthound United Kingdom Rural Clade, has been used by coursing hunters who have prized it for its ability to dispatch game caught by other, swifter sighthounds.
context_section_description: Captain George Augustus Graham (1833–1909) of Rednock House, Dursley, Gloucestershire was responsible for creating the modern Irish wolfhound breed. He stated that he could not find the breed "in its original integrity" to work with:
  That we are in possession of the breed in its original integrity is not pretended; at the same time it is confidently believed that there are strains now existing that tracing back, more or less clearly, to the original breed; and it appears to be tolerably certain that our Deerhound is descended from that noble animal, and gives us a fair idea of what he was, though undoubtedly considerably his inferior in size and power.
  — Captain G. A. Graham
  Based on the writings of others, Graham had formed the opinion that a dog resembling the original wolfhound could be recreated through using the biggest and best examples of the Scottish Deerhound and the Great Dane, two breeds which he believed had been derived earlier from the wolfhound. Into the mix went the Scottish Deerhound, the Great Dane, and Kathleen Pelham-Clinton, Duchess of Newcastle's Borzoi "Korotai", who had proved his wolf hunting abilities earlier in his native Russia. For an outbreed a "huge shaggy dog" was added, which may have possibly been a Tibetan Mastiff.
  The famous English Mastiff "Garnier's Lion" was bred to the Deerhound "Lufra", and their offspring "Marquis" entered wolfhound pedigrees through his granddaughter "Young Donagh". Graham included "a single outcross of Tibetan Wolf Dog". This was long assumed to have been a Tibetan Mastiff.  However, a photograph of "Wolf" shows a bearded, long-coated dog—what would now be called a Tibetan kyi apso. In 1885 Captain Graham with other breeders founded the Irish Wolfhound Club, and the Breed Standard of Points to establish and agree the ideal to which breeders should aspire.
  The Wolfhound has been adopted as a symbol by both rugby codes. The national rugby league team is nicknamed the Wolfhounds, and the Irish Rugby Football Union, which governs rugby union, changed the name of the country's A (second-level) national team in that code to the Ireland Wolfhounds in 2010. One of the symbols that the tax authorities in both Ireland and Northern Ireland on their revenue stamps, have been the Irish wolfhound.  In the video game Skyrim, the Irish Wolfhound is the breed of dog for all dogs in the base game.
caption: National Geographic illustration showing the great size of the breed.
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