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IMHO, the dog of the Vikings was a close ancestor of today’s Irish Wolfhound.

Read below:

Vikings cremated their dead on an open funeral pyre, and unfortunately for their dogs, they followed their masters to Valhalla.

In the Gokstad burial mound (c. 900 AD), bones of eight large sighthounds were buried on both sides outside the ship.

The first recorded Viking raid was in 795 on Rathlin Island off the coast of Northern Ireland. Subsequent forays took the Vikings all along the western coast of the Emerald Isle. The huge dogs were taken back to the Scandinavian lands, home to the Vikings, as confiscated treasure.

There were many references in the Icelandic Sagas of these large hounds, and indeed, a memorable quote about the Wolfhound comes not from a Celt, but from a Viking lord, Olaf, in Njal’s Saga, a 13th century tale of blood feuds in the Viking era. Olaf told his friend, the doomed Gunnarr, “I want to give you three gifts: a gold bracelet, a cloak that once belonged to King Myrkjartan of Ireland, and a dog I was given in Ireland. He is big, and no worse follower than a sturdy man. Besides, it is part of his nature that he has man’s wit, and he will bay at every man whom he knows is thy foe, but never at thy friends; he can see, too, in any man’s face, whether he means thee well or ill, and he will lay down his life to be true to thee . . .”

Source: https://nationalpurebreddogday.com/the-viking-irish-wolfhound/