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Irish Wolfhound — BetterBred Breed Page – BetterBred.com
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Irish Wolfhound

Temperament: Calm, athletic, and imposing in size, the Irish Wolfhound is serene, gentle, and dignified despite its enormous scale. They are quiet companions, good with family and children, and generally non-aggressive - historically a hunter of wolves and large game, but today a gentle giant. They need moderate exercise and plenty of soft places to stretch out.
Height: Males: 32 inches (81 cm) or more, Females: 30 inches (76 cm) or more
Weight: Males: 120+ pounds (54+ kg), Females: 105+ pounds (48+ kg)
Life Span: 6-10 years
Outlier Index ?
0.29
Born before 2016: 0.28 Born after 2024: —
Avg Genetic Rel. ?
-0.02
Born before 2016: -0.01 Born after 2024: —
Internal Relatedness ?
0.02
Born before 2016: 0.02 Born after 2024: —
Irish Wolfhound
#NameGender OIAGRIR
1 Goldswift Enchanted Legacy F 0.47 -0.06 -0.31
2 Roots Daighin Cu F 0.38 -0.08 0.14
3 Broughadowey Raiden At Torrfionn M 0.22 0.01 0.10
4 Sclavensisshowmethemoney M 0.39 0.00 -0.25
5 Monsterinc Justyna F 0.16 0.02 0.21
6 Cavan Av Black Glacier F 0.20 -0.03 0.17
7 Harmaasuden Idaho F 0.35 -0.06 -0.02
8 Nemain Achos M 0.31 0.04 -0.17
9 Temair's Intrepid Traveller Of Carrickaneena M 0.27 -0.01 0.01
10 Quadrifoglio Verde Bess F 0.32 0.01 -0.21
The Irish Wolfhound is an ancient breed, used for hunting wolves and elk across Ireland and Britain from at least the Middle Ages. By the time wolves had been eradicated from the British Isles in the 18th century, the breed's working purpose had disappeared with them, and the population dwindled nearly to extinction. Captain George Augustus Graham began a deliberate restoration in the late 19th century, using remaining Wolfhound-type dogs crossed with Scottish Deerhound, Great Dane, and a small number of other breeds. The modern Irish Wolfhound descends almost entirely from Graham's restoration work and carries the genetic marks of that very narrow founder base.
View Official Breed Standard →
Dilated cardiomyopathy, cancer (particularly osteosarcoma), and gastric dilatation-volvulus (bloat) are the breed's defining health concerns and are major drivers of the short lifespan. Hip and elbow dysplasia, portosystemic shunts, and pneumonia also occur at elevated rates. The very large size itself is a significant risk factor.
VGL has reported Irish Wolfhounds carrying an average of around 4.33 alleles across the 33 STR loci, with an effective allele count near 2.39. Both numbers are among the lowest recorded for any tested breed - a direct reflection of the breed's near-extinction and narrow restoration. Every rare allele is especially valuable in this breed. VGL testing has found Irish Wolfhounds with observed heterozygosity slightly below expected, giving a modestly positive inbreeding coefficient. That reflects the breed's dramatic 19th-century reconstruction from a handful of founders. Individual IR values vary and breeders have real room to prioritize less related pairings within the limited gene pool.

Average metrics by birth year for dogs with recorded birthdates in the BetterBred database.

A 3D genetic map of enrolled Irish Wolfhound dogs in the BetterBred database, based on allele-sharing distance across 33 STR loci. This is not a complete picture of the breed — it reflects only dogs whose owners have enrolled them. Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · hover for dog names (public profiles only).

Historical founders — oldest 25% of enrolled dogs     Current gene pool — most recent 50% of enrolled dogs
Building plot… this may take a minute for larger breeds.

The Dog Leukocyte Antigen (DLA) region controls immune function and is the most polymorphic portion of the canine genome. Every dog carries two sets of DLA haplotypes — one from each parent — which almost never recombine across generations. Frequency percentages reflect how often each haplotype appears across all allele copies in the breed, not the percentage of dogs carrying it.

Class I Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
1052
33.8%
1105
32.5%
1094
18.2%
1068
13.0%
1213
2.0%
1104
0.7%

Class II Haplotypes

HaplotypeFrequency
2022
35.7%
2021
29.9%
2005
18.8%
2053
13.0%
2031
1.3%
2083
0.7%
2133
0.7%

Class I & II Combinations

Class IClass IIFrequency
1052 2022
33.8%
1105 2021
29.9%
1094 2005
16.9%
1068 2053
13.0%
1105 2005
2.0%
1213 2022
2.0%
1094 2031
1.3%
1104 2133
0.7%
1105 2083
0.7%

The Canine Diversity Test from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory is the foundation of BetterBred’s breed management tools. Testing your dog adds to the breed database and gives you access to the full suite of breeding analysis tools.

Order from UC Davis VGL →
Malinkey
United Kingdom
Visit Website →
Steppin' Wolf Irish Wolfhounds
Kentucky, United States

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OI
Outlier Index

The Outlier Index (OI) measures how unusual a dog’s allele combination is relative to the tested population of its breed. A higher OI means the dog carries alleles at lower frequencies across the breed — genetic variants that are underrepresented in the population as a whole.

Dogs with high OI are genetically valuable because they carry diversity that most other tested dogs don’t share. Breeding them thoughtfully into the broader population helps redistribute lower-frequency alleles rather than allowing them to become even rarer over generations.

The breed average shown here reflects all dogs tested in the BetterBred database. The senior and youngster comparisons show whether diversity is trending up or down in recent generations.
AGR
Average Genetic Relatedness

Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR) measures how similar a dog’s DNA is, on average, to every other tested dog in the breed. It reflects the dog’s mean kinship — how closely related it is to the population as a whole.

A lower AGR means the dog is more genetically distinct from the majority of the breed. Dogs with low AGR carry alleles at lower frequencies across the tested population, making them higher-priority candidates for inclusion in a well-managed breeding program.

AGR is conceptually related to mean kinship used in conservation genetics for managed species populations. A declining AGR average in younger dogs suggests the breed is successfully redistributing genetic diversity across generations.
IR
Internal Relatedness

Internal Relatedness (IR) measures how much identical genetic material an individual dog inherited from both parents. IR is a useful indicator of inbreeding: lower IR generally reflects lower inbreeding, and it is widely used and reported in the scientific literature.

A high IR is not the cause for alarm it might appear. Elevated IR can often be resolved in a single generation by pairing with a dog whose ancestry is less represented in the breed. It is a signpost, not a sentence.

BetterBred reports IR for reference, but it is not our primary breeding guidance tool. OI and AGR together give a more complete and actionable picture of a dog’s genetic value to the population.

AGR tells you which dogs are genetically unusual relative to the population. OI tells you which dogs are most valuable to preserve. OI specifically weights mid-frequency alleles, identifying dogs whose ancestry is underrepresented in a way most likely to benefit the breed.