My question is with regards to owning an Irish Wolfhound as a pet with a young family.
I have 3 children aged 5 and under. I live in a small village in the pennines, in a large 3 bed house with a substantial garden. Having read many different websites there seems to be conflicting advice. One way of thinking opinions that Irish wolfhounds are gentle giants and are ideal family pets as they would 'guard your children with their lives'; The other way of thinking seems to be that young Wolfhounds need plenty of rest, not pestered by children and excersise that will stretch their legs, so walking at a toddlers pace will be damaging to their joints.
Could someone please advise me if now would be a good time to own a Wolfhound as I have always wanted one but until now never felt i had the time to devote to such a large animal.
Thankyou
Stacie Murphy
smurphcircus@hotmail.com

Have you been along to a show and talked to IW owners? Might be a good idea ..give you more of an insight into the breed and show what sort of family set ups some owners and breeders have?

:)

I can only speak from personal (and i am learning all the time) experience, we always had reasonably large dogs lurchers when I had children. 18 months ago we came home with our first Wolfie our children were 6 & 8 at the time so slightly older than yours. If we thought they were annoying the wolfhound too much we would just leave her in the kitchen, (the doors were always left open so she could wander into us when she wanted to and the kids were kept in the room. I do know people that have had young dogs and they would put a baby gate on the room where the dog was and leave the doors open so the kids couldn't get at the dog but they could here and see it. I have to say our Wolfie is great with the kids, most of her time is spent in the garden or just laid somewhere in the house. The only thing is they're not very good at maneuvering around things in a graceful manner so you would probably want to keep a careful eye on your smallest children. They don't need vast amounts of exercise in the first yearish due to growing bones etc. However if your smallest is in a pushchair I don't see any harm as you'd be walking at your normal pace. I would suggest reading a book called The magnificient Irish Wolfhound' by Mary McBryde and maybe looking at the Irish Wolfhound Societys webpage. They were good enough to put me in touch with a local breeder who was great with answering any questions that I had I'd also suggest maybe meeting someone that had them you don't realise how big they are at first .  Puppies do need a lot of time spending with them with training and TLC obviously I am no expert and don't know your personal circumstances and I'm sure you've given it a lot of thought but i would read and look on the internet at as much info as I could. Again Personally I would own more than one as they're addictive once you own one your hooked. I hope this has been of some help if I can be of any further help please email me. Ps I live in West Yorkshire not far from the pennines, don't know if you're anywhere near me if you

We have 3 Irish Wolfhounds, 2 are 4 years and 1 of 2 years; My Granddaughter who lives with us has been brought up with them, shes now 4. The only problem we have had is with wagging tails, also as the wolfhounds get older they tend to run down the garden regardless of whether children are in their way or not, Poppy from a young age has learnt to stand to one side. Puppies do need alot of attention as within a blink of an eye they can demolish a room. As they get older my wolfies sleep 22 hours out of the 24. They are useless as guard dogs, unless the burglar fell over them