Tag: Irish setter

Erin Go Bark: The Most Popular Irish Dog Breeds and Names

In celebration of St. Pawtrick’s — er, Patrick’s — Day, here are the most popular Irish dog breeds and names in the United States.

No matter what breed or mix of breeds your dog happens to be, have a very Happy St. Patrick’s Day. And let’s hope every homeless dog has the luck of the Irish and finds a forever family!

Top 5 Irish Dog Breeds

According to the American Kennel Club’s (AKC) Most Popular Dog Breeds of 2022, these are the Irish breeds that made the list:

  1. Irish Setter (71 on the list)
  2. Irish Wolfhound (89; 85 in 2021)
  3. Irish Terrier (131; 124 in 2021)
  4. Irish Red and White Setter (168; 154 in 2021)
  5. Irish Water Spaniel (183; 165 in 2021)

Top 5 St. Patrick’s Day-Inspired Dog Names

Back in 2015, the pet insurance provider VPI (now Nationwide) listed the most popular Irish-inspired pet names, based on its database of more than 525,000 insured pets.

These were the top 5 names:

  1. Lucky
  2. Seamus
  3. Clover
  4. Patrick
  5. Shamrock

The most popular name for Irish Wolfhounds was Finnegan, VPI noted. Dublin, after the capital of Ireland, and Jameson, a famous Irish whiskey, were also popular names.

And if you want to give your new four-legged family member an Irish name, the AKC offers these suggestions, among others:

  • Patrick
  • Clover or Shamrock
  • Madigan (Gaelic for “little dog”)
  • Shandy (which is beer mixed with a soft drink, ick)
  • Finn or Finnegan (Gaelic for “fair one,” aww)

Top 5 Irish Beer-Inspired Dog Names

These were the most popular beer-inspired names, according to VPI:

  1. Murphy
  2. Guinness
  3. Harp
  4. Smithwick
  5. O’Hara

Although it’s not on the list, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bailey, after the famous cream liqueur, is also a very popular name, sure and begorrah.

Photos: peggycadigan; frame.fusion; Kathleen Tyler Conklin; Pleple2000

Tornado-Damaged Tree Stump Becomes Tribute to Family Dog

Jo Holt lost a lot of big trees on her Coxey, Ala., property when an EF3 tornado tore through the town in April.

As the storm passed over the house she’d grown up in, the 78-year-old, her two sons and her Irish setter, Charley, hunkered down in the storm cellar her father built 75 years ago.

The house suffered only minor damage, but most of the trees, which had been planted decades ago, were destroyed.

“It was like total devastation … and it truly was,” Jo told the News Courier. She said one tree in particular, a huge red oak, had been a favorite of her father’s. The tornado snapped the tree in half.

Jo didn’t want to have the 12-foot-high stump removed, but she wasn’t quite sure what to about it. Her son Greg came up with a great idea.

“I woke up in the middle of the night one night and I said, ‘There’s not but one thing to put on it, and that’s Charley,” Greg told WHNT.

His mom contacted Bo Hancock, a chain-saw artist from Corinth, Miss. The stump was decayed in the middle, so Hancock wasn’t able to use it for the carving. Instead, he sawed Charley’s likeness from a cypress log, and used the red oak stump as its base.

Greg told WHNT that when the carving was completed, it was the first time he’d seen his mom smile since the tornado struck four months ago.

Photo via Facebook

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