Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Scottish Deerhound - TPR's In Focus - May 27, 2026

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Scottish Deerhound - TPR's In Focus - May 27, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University's Dothan Campus,
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  identifying and preserving historical documents and photographs for research related to the
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  Wiregrass region. More information at troy.edu slash wiregrass archives.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. For years I have wanted to
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  meet a certain guest, and Carol King, curator at Montgomery's Old Alabama Town, made it possible.
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  In our Paws for Animals series, Carol brought her Scottish deerhound, Leslie, for a radio visit.
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  Leslie stands tall, up to my waist, and she has a wiry gray coat, a long face with intelligent
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  eyes, and is extremely well-mannered. Our visit made my day.
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  Carol King, what a delight to visit with you in person. Well, how fun! It's always a lot of fun to
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  be with you, Carolyn, and especially when we're talking about something that's near and dear to
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  our hearts. Where are we on the property? We're in Lucas Tavern, and we've got lots of schoolchildren
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  in our backyard right now, but the tavern is becoming a really social kind of place 200 years
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  later. And this is all part of America's 250th. Right, we're 200. Last year we celebrated Lafayette's
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  200th birthday through here, and now we're working on the 250th. Well, we have a special guest
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  inspecting the microphone, and who do we have? This is Leslie. Leslie's a Scottish deerhound, and she's
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  six years old. She's a retired champion, so she used to be around people and socializing and
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  traveling, so this is definitely a treat for her today, too. So, Carol, she has a special collar on.
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  What is the significance of her collar? She actually has the official tartan of the Scottish
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  Deerhound Club of America, authorized by the Scottish Parliament, but a lot of her people at
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  dog shows show off their family tartan. She is big. Can you describe her size and weight?
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  She meets the Scottish Deerhound AKC confirmation, which is an official book or official
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  height. She weighs about 95 pounds. She's a dark gray, and her coat is very wiry. She has a very
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  beautiful head, a big head and a long snout, and lots of fur all over. She's very fuzzy because it's
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  a lot of protection for what they were bred for, which is hunting deer. Can you tell me more about
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  the history of this breed? Where did you get her? Actually, her father is Irpingham's Benvolio. He's
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  actually from England, and the breed itself was starting to dwindle down, and our breeder decided
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  that she wanted to revive the breed in the country. She went to England and found Ben. So, Ben is her
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  father, and her mother lives in Virginia. Good breeding is very calculated. Her official AKC title
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  is Iron Gates Love the One You're With at Land's End, and her name on all AKC registered dogs tells
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  you a little bit about them. She's from the Iron Gate Kennel. Her father is an Iron Gate dog, and
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  her mother is from a Land's End Kennel, and she's from the Love Litter. All of her siblings have a
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  name with the love word in their name. She's Love the One You're With. She has a brother named Love
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  is a Battlefield. She has another sister named You Can't Hurry Love, but they do have another call
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  name, which in hers is Leslie. So, you've been showing dogs for how long? Probably 25 years. We started
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  with the Irish Wolfhounds, and then we just sort of gradually ended up with this breed. It's a culture
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  as well. It's not just getting in a ring with the big gray dog. When we go to dog shows, the guys wear
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  tartans, and they opened Scottish Deerhounds Show Nationals with bagpipes, and there's a lot of
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  whiskey drinking and haggis. So, it's celebrating an actual culture as well. This is a big dog, and are
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  they bred to chase deer? They're bred to bring down deer, to gang up and to bring down deer.
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  They're basically like fuzzy greyhounds. They run fast, quickly, and then they kind of rest for a
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  while. Do they have a lot of endurance, Carol? Very little endurance. They're really, you know, of course,
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  greyhounds are known as couch potatoes, and they're pretty much right there too. And has she always
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  been a show dog? AKC Confirmation is what is the standard in all dog shows in this country, and
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  they're registered so, like, they compete against a standard. All of her pups and her siblings, most
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  of them have been show dogs as well, from the kennel that they're from. Some of them go on to have very,
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  very distinguished careers. Her sister, still one of the top 10 in the country, and a lot of her
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  cousins are ranked within it. She did make it to a champion. She did not make it to a grand champion.
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  She's more of a home girl. What makes a champion Scottish Deerhound? You meet the AKC standard,
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  physically, but you gotta have an attitude. When your owner shows up with the leash, you gotta know
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  you're going on the road, and you gotta perk up, and you gotta sort of sprint around the ring, and you
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  gotta like it, because it's a lot of work. The training takes a long time. They actually, as a group,
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  begin training when they're three months old. They travel, they go to matches where they practice, and
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  then by the time they're six months old, they're ready to compete in the AKC rings. She is extremely
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  well-behaved. What is the temperament of these dogs? So many people are gravitated to the Scottish
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  Deerhound because they're such gentle, laid-back, people-friendly animals. Oddly enough, they recognize
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  each other. We'll be, let's say, in a field, or a coliseum, or an ag center, and they'll see in the distance,
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  because they are sighthounds, so they have very good vision. They'll see one of their kind, so they
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  recognize each other. They recognize their breeds. Are they trained to chase deer, or is this innate
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  through generations of breeding? It's innate through generations of breeding. These guys, in this
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  country, they're not used for hunting. They do compete. The breed itself has become more stabilized.
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  From a confirmation standpoint, they're popping up in confirmation, and they're called obedience.
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  You'll see them in rally, and in something called fast cat, where they basically race against their
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  own time schedule. They race down a tunnel, and their speed is measured. They compete with
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  themselves, and they love to lure course, which is in a large field, and they chase a mechanized
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  lure, which would imitate a rabbit. To me, they look about the size of a deer, very streamlined.
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  How would you describe her? She's sort of a fuzzy greyhound. She's very angular. She's got a beautiful,
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  what we call, tuck, which is where her stomach connects to her back end, and she's got a lot of
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  power in her back end, a lot of power. I mean, she can run when she wants to run, and she can pull,
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  but she also likes to howl at the fire engines and birds. She has a soft side as well. She seems to
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  have a very sweet temperament around humans. She loves humans. She loves to go places. She loves to
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  go to bookstores and coffee shops, and of course, she comes down here to old Alabama town a lot, and
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  they're used to playing with other dogs. They're raised around other dogs, and are very personable.
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  Eyesight, is it very keen? Well, she is a sight hound with Irish wolfhounds and greyhounds, so they hunt
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  by sight and speed. Well, she is a lovely dog, and she even gave me a kiss on the cheek. Nothing personal,
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  Carolyn, but she kisses everybody. Carol, it has been a delight. I have wanted to meet Leslie for
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  many years, so thank you so much for making that possible. Well, thank you for introducing the
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  Scottish Deerhound to your audience. By the way, do they bark much? She has a really nice bark. They talk
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  a lot. They, you know, because like, where are we going, you know, or it's time for dinner.
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  She has a real keen timing. She tells me when it's 6 18, because it's dinner time, and she tells me
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  when it's 6 18 in the morning, because it's time to get up. So, they're very routine oriented. She did
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  travel a little bit on the road with her breeders to shows, and so she loves to travel in the RV
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  with the rest of her people, and other Scottish Deerhounds too, so. Are they guard dogs at all?
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  They do like to look out a window, and so if someone is thinking about entering your house
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  not invited, that's kind of scary. You know, so their size can deter. Very, very smart. I want to
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  thank you, Carol. Yeah, thank you. That was Carol King, curator at Montgomery's Landmarks Foundation,
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  Old Alabama Town, and her Scottish Deerhound dog, Leslie. Thanks for joining us for the Paws for
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  Animals series on In Focus, which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.