Puppies

We have no puppies currently – if I know of any breeders with litters
I will happily try and help – if you wish to contact me for details or go to the Other Breeders pages for a list of those I would recommend you contact.

I have been asked recently why we don’t breed more often, its a good question, and I can give an easy answer to it here.
Breeding more than we do would mean compromising on how we live with our dogs.
If we breed a litter it is with the intention of keeping one or more puppies, because we have done it to achieve something
by putting those lines together, else why on earth breed the litter.

If we have more dogs than we can fit into the house to live with us, it means they live their lives out in kennels – and
I have never wanted that to happen as they are such a companionable breed – nor would I want my dogs to feel more
affection for a kennel maid than for me, so in short – breeding is self limiting to the time I can devote to my hounds and
the house space we have available, but I couldn’t see me doing it any other way – I think we get the best of both worlds.

Our puppies are born and reared in our home so are well handled and used to all the sights and sounds of a normal household and we encourage friends to visit with their children to help us socialise the pups, so we hope we end up with puppies that are forward going and well adjusted and which will have had a good grounding for the continued socialising and development to be undertaken by their new owners.

It goes without saying that we only breed from clear heart tested hounds and certificates are available for viewing.

Our puppies will be checked by our vet before going to their new homes – and will be…

• Livershunt tested
• Vaccinated
• Wormed
• Microchipped
• Have four weeks insurance with PetPlan. We encourage our puppy owners to maintain insurance on their hound for lifetime cover.
• Starter bag of food is provided and we can supply our Salmon and Potato adult food for £28.00 per 15kg sack if you require it.

Prices for an IW pup vary up to £1800.   We ask £1500.00 and encourage owners undertake their own health checks for the hounds such as attending the breed heart testing scheme during the hounds lifetime.

We will encourage and guide our puppy owners about the availability and benefits of health checking dogs, such as heart testing and how they can contribute to any health research in the breed.

• We do ask for a home check to be done either by ourselves or someone we trust to do this for us
• We do endorse our puppies not for breeding and do not provide breeding stock
• We do use an Agreement of Sale which includes a buy back clause should a puppy buyer not be able to keep their puppy for any reason – the most important thing for us is the future of our puppies.
• We are there for contact and support for the lifetime of your hound.
• We never ask a deposit on a puppy.
• Because we contribute DNA samples from our dogs to all the current research programmes, any puppies will have contributed blood samples at the time of their livershunt test. We always ask owners to keep us advised on the health of their hound throughout its life – but this is especially important because the hound will be registered with the research programmes and they need eventual feedback on health and eventual longevity.

If we have no puppies ourselves – please get in touch as I may know breeders who have, or contact the Irish Wolfhound Society or Irish Wolfhound Club as they may know who of their members have litters.

PLEASE CHECK OUT THE IRISH WOLFHOUND PUPPY WEBSITE

Do consider where you are buying your puppy from – although it is true a Wolfhound is a Wolfhound and they are not responsible for the actions of those who breed them – it is about the ethics of that breeder and the effect of their actions on the dogs and the breed once they have left their premises, and whether you want to support that.

Please have a look at the I W Health Groups Guide to Buying a Puppy which has some good advice.

The Irish Wolfhound Club website has some good advice on what to look out for when you are approaching other breeders to inquire about puppies, do be careful when you find a kennel that has litters of more than one breed – (not always displayed on the kennel website how many they actually have) –

These days it doesn’t always mean the dogs in commercial establishments are in awful conditions – very often the premises looks impressive.

When inquiring after puppies with a breeder, if you want to gauge whether its a commercial operation there are some signs you can look for.

• Inquire how many litters the dogs and bitches have had – check the dam’s name on iwdb.org for a breeding history as she may have had litters in other countries.
• How many breeds are produced on the premises
• How many litters the kennel has produced that year in each breed – again iwdb.org 
• Veteran hounds are usually the pride of any breeder – ask to see the older veteran hounds, often a commercial kennel won’t keep anything beyond breeding age.
• Are they asking for a homcheck – a responsible breeder will ask for this re-assurance.
• What age are they letting puppies go?  8 weeks old is too young for this breed.

OUR BREEDING PLANS tend to follow this thought process……. we only breed a litter of puppies to get the next generation offspring.

When planning a litter, we are striving not only to improve our hounds in accordance with the breed standard but also to improve the health and lifespan of the hounds we are responsible for producing.

We look at pedigrees in depth, and where we can – aim to use sires who have ancestors who have lived beyond the average for the breed, and if possible where the cause of death is known. We note on our own pedigrees the same information to assist us in making the right choices when deciding on a breeding combination and elect to work with other breeders who are of a like mind.

Please do not take offence if we choose not to place puppies in homes where people are at work all day, Wolfhounds are companionable creatures and thrive on human contact.

We don’t ask people for a deposit on a puppy, it is our right to change our mind about letting a puppy go if we feel during any time in the process of meeting new owners that things are not as they should be with the potential home; equally we understand that potential puppy buyers may also change their mind at any time.

We offer full support and maintain contact throughout the lifetime of the hound, and we do use a Sales Agreement to ensure that the hound returns to us if the home fails. All puppies are endorsed not for breeding and not for export.

We visit each potential home to see where the hound will live, and require more than one visit to us from potential owners to see puppies and get to know us.

While we are happy to help people select a puppy for showing, we prefer not to provide breeding stock.

We don’t keep waiting lists for puppies as we can’t guarantee when litters will materialise but would direct you to www.irishwolfhoundpuppies.co.uk of which I am one of the administrators. This site lists members of the breed clubs who have litters and you can also get lists of breeders from the IW Club and the IW Society.

If you would consider a rescue hound, then please follow the link to go to the Wolfhound Rescue website.