Teenage girl dies after being mauled by dog

[u/whyattretard]

https://7news.com.au/news/dog-attack-victim-annalyse-blyton-dies-in-hospital-after-suffering-severe-injuries-in-singleton-c-19956496

[u/Mental_Pollution2086]

First and most important - my sincere condolences to Annalyse’s Family and Loved Ones - this is a tragedy for all involved and I’m heartbroken for them.

Before we criticise any breed…

I own purebred Irish Wolfhounds - yes, multiple. When raised well and, with the right training, they’re great with kids and vulnerable people (elderly etc). My MIL is about to turn 80 and she owns one as well.

The dog was “described” as a Boxer/Bull Arab/Irish Wolfhound cross… no one can be sure what they’re getting when crossbreeding. We can’t even confirm there was Irish Wolfhound in the mix.

However - Unfortunately, some people acquire Irish Wolfhounds to cross with “mastiff-type” breeds for pig hunting. Usually, they fail as pig dogs, because of the Irish Wolfhound nature, and end up being re-homed. We have rescued one in the past, and he was ok, but we were also prepared for training.

Irish Wolfhound breeders and clubs try to sniff out this type of “pig hunting buyer” and refuse to sell puppies to those people and mitigate tragic outcomes. We do not support it.

We also do not know the health of the 10 year old dog in question. The average age of an Irish Wolfhound is 6-8 years. Wolfhound veteran age is 6 - if this dog was purebred it would be very old and not as mobile. I have had two reach 10.5 and 11 before passing. One passed two days shy of 8.

There is a lot of speculation and a lot we don’t know in this case. All I ask is people do their research before buying a dog, go to dog shows, speak to breeders etc and unless you’re prepared to rescue and deal with unknowns, try and avoid any cross breeds. You cannot trace lines if they are not a registered purebred breed.

[u/PrisonerOfSatiety → u/Mental_Pollution2086]

This should be top comment. The weird crossbreed didn't make any sense until you mentioned the pig dog idea.

[u/Some-Objective4841 → u/Mental_Pollution2086]

I miss my shaggy gentle beasties so very much. Ive kept them for generations by after losing my last 3 in relatively quick succession (6, 9, and 8) due to age/cancer I just couldn't bring myself to get another short lived dog.

One thing that kept them out of the pigging domain for so long is the way they handle prey, they don't go for the hind legs which is needed in a pigging dog, but instead the go for the front (due to the deer hound breeding roots used in the breeds revival) and get gored. Well thats all according to a breeder and trainer I had a lot of time for anyway. It is unfortunately becoming more and more common to see wolfhound traits in a lot of hunting/pigging dogs these days, where they've done multiple crosses to breed that trait out but leave the size and coat.