THE IRISH WOLFHOUND DATABASE
You can check out your dogs pedigree & ancestors etc on The Irish Wolfhound Database. It is also a good website to check out breeders, how often they breed, how many litter they have from their dogs & bitches.
The Irish Wolfhound Database (iwdb.org)
Bringing a puppy home.
If you go visit your puppy before the date you are bringing him home, take a blanket and put it in his bed, you can then bring the blanket back to his new house and his new bed, it will make his new surroundings a little more familiar.
We always sleep downstairs with our new puppies for the first 3 weeks!! I dont like the puppies to get used to sleeping in our bedroom, I would rather they got use to sleeping where I will eventually leave them. Sleeping downstairs with the puppy builds a bond and it helps with house training, any time the puppy wakes during the night he goes straight outside for potty time. We do treat it much rather like having a new born baby in the house.
We keep new puppy separate from our other dogs for as long as it might take (we have baby gates everywhere), he is going to be with us for a long time so there is no need to rush things. We feed puppy in a whelping pen and all the other dogs eat around the outside, that way puppy learns that he has his food and they have theirs, he cant get a telling off for trying to pinch theirs. Our Puppies also have timeout in the whelping pen (you can use a crate) for bones, treats, his kong etc, eventually we find our puppies use their pen as their retreat, the crate is open 90% of the time, we use a crate as a safe zone for our puppies.
Vaccinations
If puppy has had its first injection you must take him for his second injection, so you need his vaccination card from his breeder with batch number/brand etc. If you ever intend on getting puppy a passport then he must be microchipped before he has his vaccinations (must be microchipped by breeder by law nowadays). Puppy will need to be vaccinated if you ever want to leave him in kennels or with a licensed in-house boarder, they will ask for his vaccination card.
Also, if you are going to have puppy insured then it might be written in the small print that he must have all the necessary vaccinations and boosters.
Please be aware that the Leptospirosis vaccine is not one of the 3 core vaccines, ask your vet about which Lepto vaccine he uses and possible side affects, do you want your dog to have Lepto 2 or Lepto 4, it is your right to decide or to opt out of giving the Lepto vaccine, so do your research and make up your OWN mind!!
Worming
Our worming recommendation. Wormed every 2 weeks until 12 weeks then once a month until 6 months old, then at 1 year old. We do not worm again unless showing symptoms.
Puppies actually pick up worms from their mother through the placenta and also from their mother’s milk. If left untreated a heavy worm infestation can make your puppy very poorly with sickness, diarrhoea and weight loss. It can also weaken a puppies immune system. So we worm all our pregnant girls at 45 days
Growth Chart
We do not have one, I know that is boring lol We do chart the growth of our puppies but each individual is so very different that a growth chart of our dogs will in no way help you or your puppy. Wolfhounds can massively differ in size, for example a small built male standing at 32 inches is going to have grown very differently to a large built male standing at 40 inches. The smallest puppy in the litter can become the biggest fully grown adult and vice versa, the smallest bitch can produce the biggest offspring and vice versa, dont think by bringing home the biggest male you are going to end up with the biggest male!!! Of course, a good quality diet is going to benefit any dog but ultimately it comes down to genetics, your dog is genetically programmed to be as big or as tall as he/she will end up. As far as monitoring the growth of your Irish Wolfhound Puppy you have to deal with each dog as an individual. We dont like fat puppies, its not good for their joints. If anything we would rather have them on the slim side but we do like a nice covering, ‘a reserve’ in case of illness, injury, first season or any other reason they may drop weight suddenly.
NB that is a Labrador not an Irish Wolfhound
Toilet Training
I love toilet training (oh no I dont!!), the first milestone with a puppy is conquering toilet training. It has taken me as little as 7 days and sometimes a lot longer!!! None of our Wolfhounds have been as quick as the Shepherds.
We us Anigene to clean up after accidents. It is specially formulated to neutralise nasty niffs!
Summer puppies are easier than winter puppies, due to being able to leave the patio doors open (they still need to learn to ask to go out), who would want to go out when it is raining and cold in winter.
Toilet training is about consistency and patience. Puppy needs to go out straight after sleeping, eating and playing and that is really all puppies do so you have to be on the ball, ready and waiting. Constantly take puppy outside and use cue words, we say ‘go wee wee’ then praise, praise, praise wanted behaviour.
Puppies have poor bladder control so their physical development must be taken into consideration when toilet training, very young puppies cannot be expected to go all through the night without going potty, this is why I sleep downstairs for the first few weeks. When I do start leaving puppy downstairs I do not react to any accident that may have happened during the night while I wasn’t there to let puppy out, I just clean it up and start again.
I do not like puppy pads I think they teach dogs to mess in the house and from experience I know they teach dogs to pee on sleeping bags when you take them camping! and pee on rugs, door mats or anything that resembles/feels like a puppy pad.
To Spay or Neuter your Irish Wolfhound
Overall opinion and advice about spaying and neutering Irish Wolfhounds is always the same, wait until they are 2 years old. Obviously this doesnt apply if the dog has some medical reason for early spaying or neutering, so do your research and make you own decision.
Why I’ve Had a Change of Heart About Neutering Pets
By Dr. Becker
Whenever I discuss scientific evidence related to the health risks of spaying and neutering here at Mercola Healthy Pets or on my Facebook page, I receive a lot of negative feedback from people who are absolutely certain I’m encouraging pet overpopulation and irresponsible pet ownership. So, I decided to make a video to explain to those who are standing in judgment why nothing could be further from the truth.
I Was Once a Huge Advocate of Spaying or Neutering Every Dog at an Early Age
I started volunteering at an animal shelter when I was 13 years old. I started working there when I was 14. I cleaned cages. By the time I was 17, I had become certified as a euthanasia technician by the Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine. The ten years I spent working at a kill shelter and the exposure to certain clients and cases in my veterinary practice over the years have taught me more than I ever wanted to know or could share in this video about abused, neglected, and unwanted pets.
When I first opened my animal hospital, I was so adamant about my clients spaying their female pets before the first heat cycle, that if they didn’t follow my advice, I really became upset. I tried not to show it outwardly, but I suggested that those clients might be more ethically aligned with another veterinarian who didn’t feel as strongly about the subject as I did.
That was my politically correct way of saying, “Maybe you should go to another vet,” because I would literally lose sleep over having intact patients in my practice. I spayed and neutered thousands of my patients when they were very, very young, assuming I was completing my moral task as an ethical veterinarian.
Five Years into Private Practice, Many of My Canine Patients Began to Develop Endocrine Imbalances and Related Diseases
About five years after my practice opened, many of my patients started to develop endocrine issues. This was obviously very concerning to me, as these animals were not over-vaccinated. They were all eating biologically appropriate, fresh food diets.
The first light bulb went off in my head when I started researching why up to 90 percent of ferrets die of endocrine imbalance, specifically adrenal disease orCushing’s disease. Mass-bred ferrets that enter the pet trade are desexed at about three weeks of age. The theory behind why most ferrets develop endocrine imbalance is that juvenile desexing creates a sex hormone deficiency, which ultimately taxes the last remaining tissues of the body capable of producing a small amount of sex hormone – the adrenal glands. So I began to wonder… could the same phenomenon be happening with my dog patients?
By 2006, the number of dogs I was diagnosing with hypothyroidism was at an all-time high. Diagnosing low thyroid levels is very easy compared to the complex adrenal testing required to show that a dog has adrenal disease. I started to wonder if hypothyroidism was just a symptom of a deeper hormonal imbalance in many of my patients. Because even after we got those thyroid levels balanced, the dogs still didn’t appear to be vibrantly healthy or entirely well.
I contacted Dr. Jack Oliver, who ran the University of Tennessee’s adrenal lab, and posed my theory to him. I was stunned when he told me that indeed adrenal disease was occurring at epidemic proportions in dogs in the U.S. and was certainly tied to sex hormone imbalance. Now, whether veterinarians were testing and identifying the epidemic was a whole different story.
In a Flash of Recognition, I Knew My Insistence on Desexing All My Patients at a Young Age Had Created Serious Health Problems for Many of Them
At this point, I became overwhelmed with guilt. For many years, I insisted my clients follow my advice to spay or neuter their pets at or before six months of age. It hit me like a lightning bolt that I was making this suggestion not based on what was physiologically best for my patients, but rather what I felt was morally best for their owners.
As all of the patients that I desexed at a young age cycled through, many of them with irreversible metabolic diseases, I started apologizing to my clients. I apologized to my patients as well. Through my blanket recommendation that all pets be desexed because humans may be irresponsible with an intact animal, I had inadvertently made many of my patients very ill. As a doctor, this revelation was devastating.
I began changing my recommendations on spaying and neutering. I advised my clients to leave their pets intact. Now, you must realize my veterinary practice is filled with wildly committed owners. I am not dealing with uneducated, uncaring, or unreliable clients.
Of course, there were and are exceptions to my advice against desexing. But in general, my recommendation as a holistic vet is to perform any surgery – including spaying and neutering – only when it’s a medical necessity and not an elective procedure.
I recently adopted a stray Dachshund who is intact, and I plan to leave him intact. I am an intact female myself. I am proud to say that I have not experienced a single unplanned pregnancy in my personal life or in my career at my practice as a holistic vet catering to thousands of intact animals.
If you are an irresponsible pet owner who allows your intact pet outside without a leash and direct supervision, this video is not for you. Please sterilize your pet before allowing him or her outside again, as you are contributing to the overpopulation problem. Please rethink how you care for your pet, or consider not having pets.
My Views on Sterilization of Shelter Pets
The subject of spay/neuter is a huge one, and if I were to attempt to cover every aspect of it, this video would be three hours long. Suffice it to say that until we get our nation’s shelter systems revamped, animals will continue to be spayed as juveniles. For now, that’s that. We won’t change anything with this video. Are we pushing for shelter vets to learn ovary-sparing techniques that allow for sterilization without sex hormone obliteration? Yes. But for now, that isn’t happening.
I could have made a dozen different choices in my professional career that would have been satisfying, including being a shelter vet. If I were a shelter vet right now, I would be pushing for sterilization techniques that preserve normal endocrine function. I chose the path of a wellness veterinarian because that resonated the most with my personal goals in life. As I’ve explained, I’ve made many mistakes. I’ve apologized directly to the owners and the dogs that I desexed as puppies before I knew any better.
I am as committed as ever to preventing and treating illness in individual family pets. I’m not, however, advocating the adoption of intact animals to people who may or may not be responsible pet owners. Shelter vets don’t have the luxury of building relationships with their adoptive families, so all the animals in their care must be sterilized prior to adoption. I totally agree with this. I don’t necessarily agree with the method of sterilization being used.
Why I Believe Sterilization, Not Desexing, Is the Better Option
As a proactive veterinarian, I have dedicated my life to keeping animals well. I have learned and continue to learn the best ways to help pets stay healthy and the reasons disease occurs. I am also a holistically oriented vet, which means I view animals as a whole – not just a collection of body parts or symptoms.
I believe there is a purpose for each organ we are born with, and that organ systems are interdependent. I believe removing any organ – certainly including all the organs of reproduction – will have health consequences. It’s inevitable. It’s simply common sense.
There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that desexing dogs, especially at an early age, can create health and behavior problems. When I use the term “desexing,” I’m referring to the traditional spay and neuter surgery where all the sex hormone-secreting tissues are removed. When I use the term “sterilization,” I’m referring to animals that can no longer reproduce, but maintain their sex hormone-secreting tissues.
In my view, I would not be fulfilling my obligation as an animal healthcare professional if I chose to ignore the scientific evidence and not pass it on to Healthy Pets readers and the clients at my practice who entrust me with the well being of their animals.
Health Issues Linked to Spaying and Neutering Dogs
Before I discuss some of the health issues now associated with desexing dogs, first let me point out that there are two medical conditions that actually can be totally eliminated by desexing: benign prostatic hypertrophy or BPH (enlarged prostate), and pyometra (a disease of the uterus). However, a wealth of information is mounting that preserving innate sex hormones, especially in the first years of life, may be beneficial to pets, whereas the risk of pyometra or BPH in an animal’s first year of life is incredibly low.
Recent research has also discredited a couple of myths about the supposed benefits of early spays and neuters, including:
- A study from the U.K. suggests there isn’t much scientific evidence at all to support the idea that early spaying of female dogs decreases or eliminates future risk of mammary tumors or breast cancer. This has been a much promoted supposed benefit of early spays for decades. But as it turns out, it’s based on theory rather than scientific evidence.
- Similar to the situation with early spaying and mammary tumors, there’s a common belief that neutering a male dog prevents prostate cancer. However, a small study conducted at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine suggests that neutering – no matter the age – has no effect on the development of prostate cancer.
And now for some of the disorders and diseases linked to spaying/neutering:
Shortened lifespan. A study conducted and published in 2009 by the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation established a link between the age at which female Rottweilers are spayed and how long they live. Researchers compared long-lived Rotties that lived for 13 years or more with those who lived a normal lifespan of about 9 years. They discovered that while females live longer than males, removing the ovaries of female Rottweilers before five years of age evened the score. Females who kept their ovaries until at least 6 years of age were four times more likely to reach an exceptional age compared to Rotties who were spayed at a younger age.
I spayed my rescued Rottie, Isabelle, when I adopted her at seven years of age. She lived to be 17, and she was still unbelievably vibrant at 17. She slipped on the floor in a freak accident and became paralyzed, which ultimately led to her euthanasia. But she was the oldest and healthiest Rottweiler I have ever met.
With Isabelle, I provided literally no medical care because she didn’t need it. Her body naturally thrived throughout her life. I fed her a balanced raw diet. I checked her bloodwork every six months, which was perfect until the day she died. Isabelle was a great example of a thriving pet that lived above the level of disease. I believe her sex hormones greatly contributed to her longevity and her abundantly healthy life.
Atypical Cushing’s disease. It’s my professional opinion that early spaying and neutering plays a role in the development of a typical Cushing’s disease as well. Typical Cushing’s means the middle layer of the adrenal gland is over-secreting cortisol. Atypical Cushing’s involves the outer and innermost layers of the adrenal glands and occurs when other types of hormones are over-produced, usually estrogen and progesterone.
When a dog is spayed or neutered before puberty, the endocrine, glandular and hormonal systems have not yet fully developed. A complete removal of the gonads, resulting in stopping production of all the body’s sex hormones (which is what happens during castration or the traditional spay), can force the adrenal glands to produce sex hormones because they’re the only remaining tissue in the body that can secrete them.
Over time, the adrenal glands become taxed from doing their own work plus the work of the missing gonads. It’s very difficult for these tiny little glands to keep up with the body’s demand for sex hormones. This is the condition of atypical Cushing’s. Hormone disruption is a central feature in Cushing’s disease. Any substance or procedure that affects the body’s hormonal balance should be absolutely evaluated as a potential root cause.
Cardiac tumors. A Veterinary Medical Database search of the years 1982 to 1985 revealed that in dogs with tumors of the heart, the relative risk for spayed females was over four times that of intact females. For the most common type of cardiac tumor, hemangiosarcoma, spayed females had a greater than five times risk vs. their intact counterparts. Neutered males had a slightly higher risk than intact males as well.
Bone cancer. In another Rottweiler study published 10 years ago for both males and females spayed or neutered before one year of age, there was a one in four lifetime risk of developing bone cancer. Desexed Rotties were significantly more likely to acquire the disease than intact dogs. In another study using the Veterinary Medical Database for 1980 to 1984, the risk of bone cancer in large-breed, purebred dogs increased two-fold for those dogs that were also desexed.
Abnormal bone growth and development. Studies done in the 1990s concluded dogs spayed or neutered under one year of age grew significantly taller than non-sterilized dogs or those dogs spayed or neutered after puberty. The earlier the spay or neuter procedure, the taller the dog. Research published in 2000 may explain why: it appears that the removal of estrogen-producing organs in immature dogs – both females and males – can cause growth plates to remain open. These animals continue to grow and wind up with abnormal growth patterns and bone structure. This results in irregular body proportions, possible cartilage issues, and joint conformation issues.
Higher rate of CCL ruptures. A study conducted at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center on cranial cruciate ligament injuries concluded that spayed and neutered dogs had a significantly higher incidence of rupture than their intact counterparts. While large-breed dogs had more CCL injuries, sterilized or desexed dogs of all breeds and sizes had an increased rupture rate.
Hip dysplasia. In a retrospective cohort study conducted at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, results showed that both male and female dogs sterilized at an early age were more prone to hip dysplasia.
Breed-specific effects of spay/neuter. A recent study conducted at the University of California Davis involving several hundred Golden Retrievers revealed that for the incidence of hip dysplasia, CCL tears, lymphosarcoma, hemangiosarcoma, and mast cell tumors, the rates were significantly higher in both males and females that were neutered or spayed compared with intact dogs.
Other health concerns. Early spaying or neutering is commonly associated with urinary incontinence in female dogs and has been linked to increased incidence of urethral sphincter incontinence in males.
Spayed or neutered Golden Retrievers are much more likely to develop hypothyroidism.
A cohort study of shelter dogs conducted by the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University concluded that infectious diseases were more common in dogs that were spayed and neutered at under 24 weeks of age.
The AKC’s Canine Health Foundation issued a report pointing to higher incidence of adverse reactions to vaccines in spayed and neutered dogs as well.
Among the reports and studies pointing to health concerns associated with early spaying and neutering, we also find mention of increased incidence of behaviour problems, including noise phobias, fear behaviour, aggression, and undesirable sexual behaviours.
(courtesy of https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/09/30/neutering-health-risks.aspx)
This is also an interesting article talking about the effect of early spaying/neutering on joints and bones:
LINKS
Irish Wolfhound Health Group: http://www.iwhealthgroup.co.uk/
Irish Wolfhound Rescue: http://www.irishwolfhoundrescue.co.uk/
Irish Wolfhound Club of Scotland: http://www.irishwolfhoundclubofscotland.co.uk/
Irish Wolfhound club of Northern Ireland: http://www.iwcni.co.uk/
The Irish Wolfhound Archives Courtesy of Elizabeth C. Murphy
http://www.irishwolfhoundarchives.ie/index.htm
Irish Wolfhounds by Hilary Jupp – LOADS OF INFO ON HERE
http://www.irishwolfhounds.org/
VISIONS OF THE BREED BY IW BREEDER-JUDGES
http://www.iwclubofamerica.org/visions
JUDGING IRISH WOLFHOUNDS – http://www.iwclubofamerica.org/judgingsamaha
THE CANINE SHOULDER – IRISH WOLFHOUNDS
http://www.thedogplace.org/BREEDS/Irish-Wolfhound/Canine-Shoulder_McClure-1202.asp
PetMD: http://www.petmd.com/
(PetMD is a helpful site but please do not try self diagnosis, leave it to a vet.)
List of Irish Names! :http://idognames.com/irishdognames.aspx
Oral Administration of Lactobacillus Strains Isolated from Breast Milk as an Alternative for the Treatment of Infectious Mastitis during Lactation▿
http://aem.asm.org/content/74/15/4650.full
Early Neurological Stimulation for Puppies