Deerhounds forever!

Scottish Deerhounds in a Tank

Tank Magazine that is - they've even managed to pose some human as a fashion accessory beside the hounds. This is part of a photoset shot by photographer Hellen Van Meene that appears in TANK Magazine | Volume 7 Issue 5 | if you want further information or if you wish to buy a hard copy follow the links.

Deerhound Dog pack savage young deer

Killers in your home! If you don't work your Scottish Deerhound, here's a reminder of just what these dogs are capable of. In the case that follows it would have been better that the dog owners inform the police of the incident - particularly in light of it being witnessed in a public car park. Follow this link to read the police report and the BBC give a photograph of the beach where the incident occurred here, whilst deadline news let the public view what a Scottish Deerhound looks like and bring the breed a little unwelcome publicity and Scottish Television News opt for a stock image of the quarry shot by photographers.

Deerhounds do what they do and this seems an unfortunate incident where the humans were in as much a state of panic as the deer itself.

The Scottish Dog

Looking for more deerhound in print - this Aberdeen University Press publication is a must for lovers of Scottish Breeds - The Scottish Dog - edited by Joyce and Maurice Lindsay is a cultural excursion into the magical world of Scottish Dogs - with Ghost Dogs, Literary Dogs, Heraldic Dogs, Good Dogs, Bad Dogs - poetry, humour and tales galore, seek out this book where you can. Many breeds are covered and of course the book wouldn't be complete without The Scottish Deerhound - which can be found in several sections within. There are also poems by writer Vallerie Gillies whom we have featured elsewhere on the blog with her fantastic Men & Beasts book - check out another of her poems below and we also recommend you seek out her books where you can.

Deerhounds

Admit the lives more valuable
than our life, than the bodies we bear
more beautiful: tall grey dogs,

what huntsman, what dogboy loosed you
on our slow hearts
and let you slaughter them?

Long dogs, you move with air
belling the vault of your ribcage.
You subdue the miles below your hocks.

Levelled out in speed across wayless country,
over the open grassmoor that is paradise,
the onset of your going undulates the ground.

The bracken hurdles below your height,
the rushes make way for you;
your hard eyes hold in sight the rapid hills.

Brace of deerhounds, a matched two!
Intent, all flame, is what quickens
those long throats thonged with leather.

Vallerie Gillies

Brave Scottish Deerhound

Our blog is always one to advocate the use of Scottish Deerhounds in the movies, and what better a place for them to appear than in the forthcoming Disney movie from the PIXAR studio - 'Brave'. A mature fairy tale set in Scotland about the hero finding her own path and causing chaos in the Kingdom. Hmm? Wait a minute - Scotland ? Desiring Independence ? Finding your own path ? Creating Chaos ? Is this movie really set in the 10th Century ha! ha!

Brave is to be premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this coming June. The movie is sure to be another quality entertainment from Pixar. Just follow the links above to find out more - or you can view more Brave trailers at i-tunes and include applause for the writers, animators and Pixar crew for being observant enough to include A Scottish Deerhound alongside the Clan Chief.

Gawn yersel big-man! And wee Merida anaw !

Spin the Deerhound

About Our Dogs

Here's a nice wee extract from the 1931 book About Our Dogs by A Croxton Smith OBE.

Citing sources for the Scottish Deerhound from MacPhersons Ossian, various Sir Walter Scott, Dr Johnson and Queen Victoria. Why - Croxton Smith even tells us that 'deerhounds have become distributed among the commoner people' following the rising of '45.

I'd put it to him that if he researched a little further he may have discovered that many of these 'commoner people' would have had dogs like these in the rugged north. And records indicate that almost as many dogs as people boarded ships bound for the new world during the eighteenth century (so much so, that New York alone had more dogs than people at one point - giving rise to the dog catcher and his carriage) so there is a good chance many Scottish Deerhounds journeyed with their owners 'Noble' or otherwise.

Enjoy.

Mackie and Rascal