About Us

Wunburra Irish Wolfhounds, located in Melbourne, Australia, is a small kennel that had it's beginnings in 1992 when we were joined by our first Irish Wolfhound, Cara. It was Cara who gave us our first taste of the dog show world.
 
Why Wunburra? Well, tired of seeing Australian Irish Wolfhound kennels with Irish sounding kennel names, we decided to be a little different and choose a name with more of an Australian flavour. So, from a photo of a Aboriginal name plaque located in Queensland, we decide on "Wunburra", which means "run up hill hunting dog ". We may not have any hills at our place, but it seemed appropriate at the time.

After a couple of years around the traps, er...show rings with Cara, we were fortunate to have the opportunity to purchase our second bitch, Brinn. Cara by this stage had proclaimed herself sick of the whole show scene and therefore retired. She filled her days with resting on the couch, barking at the mailman, more resting on the couch, tea and then to bed on the couch. Time and weather permitting she may have a doze in the sun as well. All in all a very busy life for a wolfhound. Unfortunately age recently caught up with her.

Brinn, now retired, loved going to shows, or anywhere else for that matter, as long as there is someone there to fuss over her. She thrives on attention (what wolfhound doesn't) and is very insistent if none is forthcoming. Of course knowing that you're a lap dog helps! Meanwhile, Tully came, stayed until he was all grown up, and then left. He and Brinn presented us with the first Wunburra puppies. Six beautiful healthy puppies who were slowly but surely eating us out of house and home, and we don't mean food, until four of them decided it was getting a bit cramped and moved out.

Derek, afflicted with Liver Shunt, came into our into our lives when he was six weeks old and lived with us until he was eighteen months. At this time he went to holiday with friends while Brinn's puppies were born. He decided that it was such a great place that he would stay. Sadly his condition got the better of him and is greatly missed by all that knew him.

From Brinn's litter, we now have two puppies, Kkate and Daen, to show under our own prefix. Only time and lots of practice, practice and more practice will tell if they have the potential to emulate their mothers' success in the ring.

Kkate and Daen have now been joined by a young girl called Ciara. She is a very friendly puppy, at times a bit too much for the rest of the gang, as wolfhound puppies are. It's only a matter of time before she wins them over.

Keeping an eye over everything, until recently, was the matriarch, Sam, our pure breed Heeler Labrador cross. When she was younger, Sam had a "thing" about dogs bigger than herself, but once Cara arrived on the scene she had no choice but to overcome her problem and they shortly became good friends. Although now she was getting a bit grumpy in her old age, Sam was also the best puppy sitter we had, she was quite happy to play, discipline or teach them bad habits whenever the need arose. At aged 12 years, cancer finally caught up with her, we will be lost without her.

But wait, there's more....we also have four three resident cats all of which get on well with the dogs and are well rehearsed with the routine of being chased by the "big dogs". We also own an Miniature Pony called Ti (Sebastian) who is actually smaller than the wolfhounds. He spent the first few months of his life with us in the puppy run with Tully. So of course he now acts a lot like the dogs, he runs with them and if given the chance he will eat thier food as well. To top things off, we now also have a baby rabbit that the cats dragged in, currently called David, and if the kids have their way he will shortly be acompanied by a Guinea Pig as a friend.

Then, of course, there are our children, Rebecca, Madeleine and Matthew. They love the dogs, except when they are sideswiped by apassing tail or lose asnack or two to slobbery wolfhound jaws. But as big and pushy as wolfhounds can be there really isn't any other dog we would have as atrustworthy family pet.

While it may not be an entirely sane place to live, the home of Wunburra Irish Wolfhounds is a happy and at all times interesting place to live. Cara will always remain very special to us, being our first wolfhound and the dog that finally fulfilled a ten year dream. Debbie always wanted an Irish Wolfhound but that didn't prepare either of us for the realities of being owned by one. They are couch hogs, bed stealers, require a bigger car, can carry at least 5 litres of water in their beards (for depositing on your lap) but most of all they are a delight to have around. Each dog is as individual as any person and each of ours holds a special place in our hearts. They are loyal, kind, gentle, forgiving and most of all a part of our family. As mentioned we are asmall kennel where our dogs live with us. They eat and sleep inside when the weather becomes cold (February till November if you believe the dogs!) and have free run of our property (about an acre and a half).

If you would like to see more, we will soon be putting together a small gallery of pictures of our place and menagerie.

We welcome visitors any time and are more than happy to talk dogs at any opportunity. Please enjoy the rest of this site. I hope the information here is of some help to you. If you have any questions or just want to chat please e-mail us.


Michael and Debbie Packer