In 2004 the UK Kennel club took part in a statistical survey of UK dogs looking for causes of death as well as illness during life. Because there was exceptional interest in the results there were also published the statistics for those individual breeds for which there were sufficient returns. The results over all the valid returns are given in the Summary Results

One striking figure from these results is that the median age of death over all dogs in the UK is about eleven years 3 months whilst for IWs it is about seven years as shown in the Irish Wolhound Results. In these results it is clear that IWs tend not to be diagnosed with 'Old Age' as an important cause of death.

The example questionaire and appendix are referenced for completeness

The three most frequent causes of death account for 63% of deaths in the general population and 66% in the IW. Not so very different. However the cancer figure in the IW at 34% is higher than that of the general population at 27%

It is worth stressing that the statistical sample for the IW was small. Never the less perhaps a similar study should be carried out in Ireland.

Comparing the results for the IW and the general purebred dog population: