Irish Wolfhounds or Scottish Deerhounds?

September 11, 2008

At first recollection of those massive dogs from Gossip Girl, I immediately thought of Irish Wolfhounds. But, when reading the comments on Buzz's show recap, someone mentioned the Scottish Deerhound. What a rare breed indeed – at one point, no one ranked below an earl could own one – which would make it an appropriately elitist choice for the Archibald family. I'm still not sold either way but I found this video on YouTube of three dark and one cream Irish Wolfhound and two Scottish Deerhounds. Check it out and see if you can decide which breed best matches the dogs from Gossip Girl.

7 Comments

4 years

The two deerhounds and cream wolfhound are my dogs. The deerhounds are the two "boxing" at the beginning of the clip. They are mother and son. The Gossip girl dogs look heavy built so I guess they are wolfhounds. The pictures are not clearly defined though.

4 years

2 Scottish Deerhounds 2 Irish Wolfhounds the scottish deerhound is the original of the breed the irish wolfhound is an 1800's cross between the deerhound greatdane and perleon mountain dog. i prefer the deerhound as it is more graceful and longer lived my last deerhound lived till the fine age of 16 I have known IWH to only make 4 years of age and the rear legs go. to heavy...

4 years

While others have more trained eyes than I, I'd agree with LdyWlfhnd. The pics from Gossip Girl aren't terribly sharp, nor are the angles that great to see the distinguishing features, but some things to look for, apart from the overall impression (deerhound more slender, wolfhound more heavy): the top of a deerhound head in profile is flat, while a wolfie's is slightly domed. The wolfhound's muzzle will be broader, while the deerhound's is more long and narrow. The wolfhound's neck is considerably thicker... the deerhound's is slender. The deerhounds legs are considerably thinner, too, and it will generally be more drawn up in the loin, more like a greyhound. Likewise, deerhounds' backs tend to be more curved-- again, like a greyhound. By size, though, the GG hounds are about right for either deerhounds or young wolfhounds, as has already been said, so it's no surprise that you were wondering.

LdyWlfhnd 4 years

Being an owner of Irish Wolfhounds, the hounds I see in the Gossip Girl pictures are Irish Wolfhounds, not fully grown ones at that. Irish Wolfhounds are thicker and more muscular (my own weighing in between 170-185 lbs), while Scottish Deerhounds are leaner, shorter in stature, and more wiry-looking. Scottish Deerhounds and Irish Wolfhounds are indeed related, as the Irish Wolfhound was nearly extinct since wolves had been hunted out of existence in Ireland by Wolfhounds. Thus, in the late 1880s, Capt. Graham crossed the remaining IWs with Deerhounds. And while he didn't breed Great Danes with the cross between the Deerhound and Wolfhound, others did until the 1930s or so. That's why the breeds are very similar in appearance. While I don't watch the show, I'm happy to see Irish Wolfhounds appearing! :-)

Just Oh 4 years

This might be a trick question. The two dark gray dogs look like deerhounds and the other more thickly built dogs look like wolfhounds. Deerhounds are certainly large but they are more leanly built, kind of like an overgrown greyhound. Which makes sense since both deerhounds and wolfhounds are related to greyhounds. This is all very confusing.

sandrap 4 years

I haven´t seen Gossp girl, but when i look at the pictures of that scene i believe they are Scottish Deerhounds.

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