Living with a Deerhound...

[emmabeth]

I share my home with a Deerhound (Scottish Deerhound in some countries though the UK has dropped the 'Scottish' bit... no idea why).

Deerhounds are a sighthound and fit into the Hound group of dogs.

In common with most of the hounds, they can be 'aloof' and are very frequently described as stubborn... but this latter is not strictly true. Hounds have very firm ideas as to what is and is not a proper activity for a hound - following the sight (or scent) of a small (or larger) furry creature ... IS. Retrieving a ball repeatedly over a short distance.. quite probably is NOT.

Hurtling round and round in circles with the ball, or other item (flowerpots, toys, yoghurt pots..) leaping into the air and going 'rar rar rar' - is apparently a proper activity for a young deerhound (more mature deerhounds will of course pretend they NEVER did this, but they did, its all a front!).

Deerhounds are a big dog, its mostly all in the legs but even so, they tend to make 30inches at least.. at the withers with bitches being more elegantly built and dogs being bigger and butcher. They should NOT however, look like an Irish Wolfhound.. they should look like a large and hairy greyhound.

Being a big sighthound, Deerhounds need a comfy place to lie down (merely 'the floor' is not going to cut it, you better have a big sofa and know how to share, or invest a lot in the squishiest of dog beds!), though if they must, they can curl up into a very small space indeed. Usually they do not believe they 'must' do this at all so expect one to take up the better part of a three seater sofa.

They are not big eaters for their size but they CAN be picky eaters - so beware becoming a slave to a Deerhounds whimsical tastes - yesterday mine said she couldnt POSSIBLE eat the delicious bowl of raw beef and kidney.... but then half an hour later, scarfed down a lard based fat ball meant for the birds!

They are a running dog and are meant to run - this is not a breed to keep on a lead or if you have a tiny garden. They can be trained to have a decent level of recall certainly if they are running alone or with non-sighthound breeds. You may find them much harder to recall if running with other sighthounds though.

For what is technically a 'giant' breed the Deerhound is pretty long lived making their early teens and sometimes more. They do have some health problems which need bearing in mind, one of which is bone cancer. They are also high risk for bloat which is a very scary and fast killer of deep chested breeds. My own deerhound survived bloat, but lost her spleen in the process. She is a very lucky girl.

I very much enjoy the sighthound temperament in general and the Deerhound one specifically and will own another (hopefully several at once!) in the future. They are not a dog for someone who wants an instant and almost sycophantic response from their dog, but if your ideas and expectations match theirs the supposed 'stubbornness' of the hound type wont be a problem in the slightest.

[laceygraves1995]

umm i have a friend who wants to get a deerhound but she has a cat, would the deerhound try to hunt the cat

[chay]

excellent post emmabeth, they sound like a lovely bunch! i love they pretend they never went 'rar rar rar' when younger, i often deny i did alot of the things i did in my youth too!

[Wicket]

When I help out at agility trials, there's a deerhound (or maybe irish wolf hound?) that will run the regular agility course and do tunnelers. She usually doesn't do all the obstacle in the regular agility course, but sure loves to run. She's only dog I know that has shrink herself to run through the tunnels.