Our Mission is to provide help and support for Irish Wolfhounds and their owners

  A ssistance?

 practical, financial, emotional

Physical help with lifting and
turning incapacitated hounds

How we Help

PAWS is run by a network of dedicated Irish Wolfhound owners and enthusiasts. Many of the “Helping PAWS” have previous experience with animal rescue and welfare work.

Irish Wolfhounds have always been well served by the Breed Clubs, the IW Rescue Trust and the IW Health Group. PAWS now offers a complementary service which runs alongside these well-established groups.

If you have a problem that you need help to solve - talk to the PAWS - and we will do our best to offer a practical solution.

The PAWS Team officially launched their expansion to a UK-wide network in August 2016. We started our fundraising from scratch and were very grateful for the many generous donations that helped us set up. Since then we have grown steadily and raised enough money to buy a comprehensive range of equipment, which can be accessed via our “Helping PAWS” and is available, for immediate use, by hounds in need.

We provide ramps, boots, tail and elbow protectors, specially designed extra large stretchers, mobility aids - such as slings, straps, lifting harnesses, etc. – and we even have nebulisers for use by hounds recovering from pneumonia.

• Our equipment has been used to help owners assist their hounds, whilst recovering from surgery and/or experiencing mobility problems, due to illness or advancing years.     

• Our funds have been used to help incapacitated and seriously ill hounds access rehabilitation, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and even life-saving operations.  

• Our personal experiences, gathered over many years of Wolfhound ownership, have allowed us to provide emotional support and practical advice to owners, enabling them to access the best care for their hounds.

We operate on a fully accountable basis. Our annual accounts are audited and a summary can be found here.

Our Inspirations

Over the years, members of the PAWS team have encountered many circumstances where a practical help network would have been a useful asset - for example:-

• helping with the day to day care of a temporarily incapacitated hound - or one in need of observation 24/7 - regardless of an owner's other commitments

• helping owners who may find themselves in temporary physical difficulty, yet still needing to care for their hounds

• helping by simply being at the end of a phone to offer advice and reassurance, should the hound's breeder be unable to do so.

In 2014, a complex welfare case involving an animal hoarder, prompted our founder to revisit the possibility of setting up a nationwide network of volunteers, with a view to providing help where there were no existing avenues to explore. 

However - one particular hound became the eventual catalyst for PAWS to be launched as a nationwide help network

Pollyanna - A beautiful, strong, healthy 4yr old Irish Wolfhound, Polly was struck down with an FCE due to an unknown trauma, in early 2016. Her owner sought the very best treatment for her and Polly received many months of supportive care at a vet hospital, including physiotherapy and hydrotherapy. Irish Wolfhound owners worldwide were willing this lovely hound to recover and wanted to support her distraught owner, who was physically not able to manage Polly on her own. Appeals were made, auctions planned and donations poured in, but sadly, it was discovered that Polly's spine was too badly damaged for her to ever walk again.

In tribute to Polly and the depth of feeling her situation engendered, we assembled a team of volunteers throughout the UK, willing to provide help in a wide variety of ways. We also set up a fund specifically to help Wolfhounds with similar spinal conditions.

This fund was originally known as "Pollyanna's Practical Aid for Wolfhounds" - Please go to "Polly's PAWS" for more information