The Big Dog

[Deidre]

At 03:55 PM 9/7/02 +0000, Felicia wrote:

>My problem is I have a mental picture of Sirius the dog and can I describe 
>it?????? Erm.... <deep breath and deeper thought>   OK I'll have a go.
>
>It's sort of a very large and bulky Dalmation type dog, with the long hair 
>of an irish wolfhound all wiry and grey but not hugely overhairy and 
>shaggy.  As the Dalmation is related to the *grate dane* maybe it's not 
>too far fetched.  It's physique is wiry and strong rather than a bulky and 
>strength through weight idea.  This wiry strength would allow it to help 
>in the control of Remus as Wolf and allows me to believe it slipped 
>through the bars at Azkaban, something I canot imagine a bulky dog doing, 
>cimply on the grounds that flesh can shrink but how much would the bones 
>of an animagus shrink?

Someone else on the list suggested an Irish Wolfhound. Having been at dog 
shows and coursing events and seen this breed up close, they are very tall, 
and do look a little bulky, but some of that is just the coat, although 
they seem to have a good rib spring, as do most sight hounds (greyhounds, 
russian wolfhounds, whippets, aghans, saluki, etc.).

Perhaps the smaller "cousin", the Scottish deerhound, could be considered. 
They have a rough coat like the Irish Wolfhound, and do come in a nice dark 
blue-grey colour. As a smaller dog than the IW, they usually have better 
movement.

Here's the offical breed site in the US:

http://www.deerhound.org/

On the other hand, IW do come in the black coat. Here's the US breed standard:

http://www.iwclubofamerica.org/thestandard.htm

Thanks for the info, corgi. <g> I rechecked my tapes afterwards. <g>

Deidre