Our first Irish Wolfhound puppy, pet name Spooky, came via my mothe. She had a male wolfhound and had answered an advert in the evening paper looking for a stud dog. I realise now that this isn’t the best way to go about breeding from your dog, but we all learn lessons, and it’s surprising how many breeders started this way. Spooky, Rehaghy Wolfcraig was the ‘pick of the litter’ stud fee, and my mum very kindly gifted her to us.
It’s not the best nor is it the recommended way to become a pet owner, but it’s probably not very different to how many people started in their respective breeds. Certainly we haven’t looked at any other breeds since we got Spooky, she changed our lives totally and set us on a wolfhound path that I think we will follow forever.
This was our first dog together and as we lived in the country at the time it was easy to watch her grow in plenty of space. She slotted into our lives well; when we first got Spooky our vehicle was a Renault Traffic van – we put a two-seat sofa in the back and she came everywhere with us. When it came to the end of its natural life we downsized to a cheap to run Ford Fiesta! Spooky was quite happy to squeeze into it as she knew that it meant she got to come with us.
At that time we didn’t know anyone else with a wolfhound so we learned everything we could from wolfhound books, most notably Mary McBryde’s The Magnificent Irish Wolfhound
We were very proud to find photographs of Rehaghy Wolfcraig’s ancestors within this wolfhound bible. Little did we know then about pure breed dog pedigrees and just how often the same dogs appear in pedigrees all over the world