These are data from the Kennel Club regarding Deerhound registration numbers from 1950 to the present. These statistics include all registrations so it includes all puppies registered
but also imported dogs and older dogs registered for export or competition. However, since those numbers are usually only a handful each year the data I think can be used to reflect the trend in puppy registrations.

Overall, the numbers in the 1950's averaged 53,
1960's averaged 83,
1970's averaged 111,
1980's averaged 213,
1990's averaged 250,
2000's to 2007 has averaged 263,
and the numbers Jan - June this year are 155.

The full data set is shown below. The unusual dip in registrations in 1976 has been double-checked against the original Breed Record Supplement to make sure it is correct.

So I plotted the data to see if there was an increasing trend and yes there is. For those interested, the r2 for the linear plot was 0.83, so that's a fair representation of an increasing linear trend.

I was surprised that such a linear trend could be observed. Will this continue? If so in 2020 we could expect around 360 new deerhound registrations. This could be positive as long as good homes can be found for these dogs.

Anyway, I don't pretend that this info provides the full picture by any means. It's just to show what Deerhound numbers we currently have in the UK and how they relate to earlier years.

Thanyou Elise, so good of you to do this I love the chart makes it so easy to understand,
I know of one litter of 10 puppies that are not being registered.
I hope this breed does not continue to increase in puppy numbers.

How are the "Wee bairns doing" ?? would be lovely to see some pics,

Hi Betina

Yes, so difficult to know the numbers that aren't being registered.

Thanks for asking about the wee bairns. Not so wee now but doing well. Here's a picture of two of them. So we'll certainly be hitting 156 and 157 registrations!

Elise,

Thanks for the data, it's really interesting (and your puppies are v cute). For comparison, I found the same data for Australia, although they only go as far back as 1986. We seem to be going downhill in numbers although the trend is not so strong (r2=0.2), not sure what happened in 1988??

Thanks for that info. Bundaleer that surprises me that we have a downhill trend.

I thought it might be due to a reduction in the number used for hunting, but I don't know if they would have been registered anyway??

Thanks for that info Bundaleer. It will be a shame if you're going down in numbers in Australia as seeing all the pictures on this forum you've got some excellent dogs.

Hopefully, fingers,toes and paws crossed, we will add to them in a couple of months

There continues to be debate on the forum regarding increased Scottish Deerhound numbers in the UK. So I thought I'd just update the info posted previously with the complete 2008 data. There were 307 new registrations last year. The range for this decade so far is 217 - 331 as listed below with the complete data set since 1950 in the graph.

Year 2000 Registrations 249
Year 2001 Registrations 217
Year 2002 Registrations 231
Year 2003 Registrations 232
Year 2004 Registrations 331
Year 2005 Registrations 264
Year 2006 Registrations 252
Year 2007 Registrations 327
Year 2008 Registrations 307

Thank you very much! That is very interesting.
Could it be Parvo in 1976/1977?
I try to get the German statistic, might be interesting to compare.

I looked at the registration numbers for Sweden from 1990 to 2008.
It's between 10 and 40, with an exception for 2008 with almost 50 new registrations.
It's between 2 and 5 litters per year.
Total number of used dogs in breeding are 41 dogs and 44 bitches.



The yellow is the total number, the red is dogs and the blue is bitches.

Thank you Elise, for setting this infomation out in such a user friendly way. The debate, on and off forum, contiues unabated and the trend over the next two or three years will be very interesting. The number of suitable pet homes is,I am sure, finite and we may be reaching the peak. The Australian numbers are very interesting and not too encouraging long term. The hunting ban in the UK will eventually have an effect both on registered and un-registered DH's, and I'm not holding my breath for it to be repealed any time soon.

These are the deerhound numbers from Norway last 5 years

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
skotsk hjortehund 9 12 14 12 10

Its quite stabile, and not a big breed, compared to German Shephard dog which is the most popular in Norway that has about 1200 registrations a year

Hi

Great to get the info from Sweden and Norway. Thanks Pea and Sagaskott. Yes, could be right about the parvo Fiddle re the drop in nos for 1976. Hadn't thought of that.

A bit more info now from 2008 regarding nos of litters and no of stud dogs used in the UK.

In the 1st Quarter of 2008 there were 16 litters.
2nd Quarter there were 8 litters.
3rd Quarter there were 13 litters.
4th Quarter there were 11 litters.

Total = 48 litters in 2008.

Total number of registrations in 2008 was 307 so assuming all registrations were puppies average litter size was 6.4.

Number of separate stud dogs used was 35. So on average each stud dog sired 1.37 litters. This was actually more encouraging than I thought regarding gene pool diversity but potentially still masks the few dogs that are used on multiple (say >3) occasions and obvioulsy doesn't look at the number of times a particular stud dog would have been used in the years previously.

Again, the info is from the UK kennel club. Hopefully, I've not misinterpreted it!

Hi Elise,
thank you very much for your statistic. Here in the German Sighthound Club we have a different but rather interesting system. Because we also have to tell the club if a mating took place. So there is also a statistic of "empty" bitches. I do hope this will work out..... you see also interesting differences within our FCI Sighthound Group. In this statistic you will see the amount of registered litters.

Here you see the amount of registered puppies

Thanks Fiddle that's excellent. Pretty stable numbers for litter registration there's no clear upward or downward trend there.

But why so many Irish Wolfhounds?