Irish Wolfhounds at Crufts

Crufts is the oldest and biggest Hound-show on the planet. It started out as a Terrier-show in 1886, but became an All-breed show in 1891. 1892 saw the first entries of Irish Wolfhounds, and Irish Wolfhounds have participated ever since. This year, around 21,000 hounds from more than 200 breeds and 45 countries competes for one of the most prestigious awards in the dog world, Crufts Best In Show.  Among them were 139 Irish Wolfhounds, judged by Roger Tebbutt on Saturday march 9th.

Only once has an Irish Wolfhound become Best In Show at Crufts. That happened in 1960, when Florence Nagle’s Sulhamstead Merman won the award.

British show

As Crufts takes place in England, it has been dominated by UK bred-dogs. It wasn’t until 1997 that a foreign-bred dog won a CC. Shadow Of Kilmara was bred by Gary Janssens in Belgium and was owned by Dagmar Kenis Pordham in England.

Over the last 14 years, foreign hounds have started to dominate the Crufts-awards for Irish Wolfhounds, with 16 of the 28 last CCs being awarded to hounds bred outside of the UK. Around half of these were awarded to hounds bred in Italy.

There are numerous reasons why foreign hounds are doing better now than they used to do. Removal of quarantine regulations and easier travel over the years have obviously been important for them to actually compete. In order to enter at Crufts, the hound also needs to qualify. In continental Europe, qualification is done by being Best Dog, Best Bitch or winning the junior class at one or two qualifying shows in each country. In addition, international champions are automatically qualified for Crufts.

Sulhamstead record

The breed-history has seen 227 CCs being awarded to best male or best bitch at Crufts. Florence Nagle’s legendary Sulhamstead kennels has received 48 of those, starting in 1925, and the last CC awarded to a Sulhamstead-hound was awarded 51 years later in 1975.

Crufts winners

Below is a list of all 227 Irish Wolfhound Crufts CC-winners so far.

Sources for CC-winners: Crufts annotated catalogues, A. du Quoy’s “The Irish Wolfhound in competition” and Fosse Data.