What dog did George Washington own?
George Washington's foxhound was Vulcan, one of more than thirty hounds Washington bred and named himself at Mount Vernon. In this episode of Talking With Pets, Vulcan returns to tell what Washington was really like, from the whole smoked ham he stole off the dinner table to the kennel Washington visited every single day, war or no war.
History remembers the famous. Their pets remember the person. On Talking With Pets, a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee runs a most unusual practice: he contacts the pets of history's greatest figures and lets them tell what they really saw. Tonight, a foxhound who watched the most serious man in the country come stand with his dogs every single day. True, surprising, and funnier than history has any right to be. Great for curious kids and the grown-ups listening with them.
Transcript
[A quiet séance circle. A faint chime. Then a big, easy voice, already sniffing the air.]
Opening
Armando: Welcome to Talking With Pets, the show where history gets told by the animals who actually lived it. I am Armando. Each episode, we sit down with the real pets of the people you studied in school, the ones who were actually there. Tonight, my colleague Prince MoRee opens the séance circle to bring us Vulcan, the foxhound of General George Washington. As always, three stories: one the record kept, one we have filled in a little, and one the dog made entirely up. Moose is with us tonight as guest interviewer.
Moose: I have been ready for an entire week.
Armando: Prince MoRee, the circle, please.
Prince MoRee: Circle is set. Moose, sit.
Moose: I am sitting. I am, yes, I am sitting. I am also very excited. Who are we talking to?
Prince MoRee: A foxhound. Mount Vernon. Large.
Moose: How large?
Prince MoRee: A boy could ride him like a pony.
Moose: That is the best sentence I have ever heard. I need a moment.
Prince MoRee: You have half a moment. Three stories tonight. One the record keeps. One we have filled in. One the dog made up. He is here.
Vulcan: Oh. Well. Something in this circle smells like ham. It is not ham. I checked. I am always going to check, that is just who I am. My name is Vulcan. I belonged to General George Washington, which is a thing people get very excited about, and I will tell you now, the General was a good man who checked on his dogs every single day,[5] and also, I once took an entire ham off his table and I regret nothing. Not a single thing.
Moose: I need to know everything about the ham. Everything.
Prince MoRee: We begin with the one the record keeps.
The ham
Vulcan: Right. So. It was Mount Vernon, after the war, before he went off to be the President. The kitchen had a ham. A whole smoked ham, sitting in its dish, smelling the way a ham smells, which is to say it was calling my actual name. Just. Calling it.
So I went in and I took it.
Moose: You just took it.
Vulcan: I fastened my teeth into it and I left. The kitchen staff did not approve. There was a great deal of running and shouting and grabbing. They fought me for it honestly and well. I want that on the record. They tried. But I am the size of a pony and I had a ham, and there is no force on this earth that separates a foxhound from a ham he has already committed to. I carried it straight to the kennels.[1]
Moose: Was it good?
Vulcan: Moose. It was the best thing that ever happened to anyone. To anyone, anywhere, ever.
Moose: Best. Thing. Ever. Writing that down.
Vulcan: Now here is the part people remember. They told the General. They expected him to be angry. He was the most serious man in America. He had a war behind him and a whole country in front of him. And he heard that his enormous dog had stolen the family dinner and outrun the entire kitchen, and he laughed. He laughed so hard he told the story to his dinner guests. The dinner I had eaten. He told it like it was a victory.[1]
Moose: Because it kind of was.
Prince MoRee: Moose.
Moose: I am, yes. Redirecting. I am back.
Prince MoRee: That one is on the record. A grandson wrote it down. Here is the one we have filled in.
The kennel
Vulcan: Here is what I think people miss about him. And I knew him, so, I get a say. The General bred dogs. Not casually. He kept books on us. He crossed his English hounds with French hounds for years, years, trying to build a faster, finer Virginia hound, and the breed he was reaching for is more or less the American foxhound you know today.[2][3] There were more than thirty of us in his journals. He named us himself, and his names were, and I say this with love, they were ridiculous. There was a Sweet Lips. There was a Venus. There was a Tipsy. There was a hound named Drunkard. There was a Madame Moose.[4]
Moose: There was a dog named Moose?
Vulcan: Madame Moose.
Moose: I have never been prouder. In my life.
Vulcan: Every single day, war or no war, country or no country, he came down to the kennel. He had a creek run through it so we always had water. He looked each of us over. He knew us apart. Sweet Lips was his favorite, and when he had to go to Philadelphia to do the heavy work of building a government, he took her with him. So he would have a dog who knew him, in a city full of people who only knew the General.[5]
Moose: So when everybody wanted something from him, he had one friend who just wanted him.
Vulcan: That is the part I am filling in. I cannot prove what it felt like to him. But I watched a man who carried more than any man should, and the thing he did to steady himself was come stand with the dogs. I know what that is. I was one of the dogs.
Prince MoRee: That part we pictured, from what the record gives us. He did keep the books. He did visit daily. Sweet Lips did go to Philadelphia. Good. And now here is the one Vulcan made up entirely.
The war Vulcan won
Vulcan: In my version, I won the war.
Moose: Oh, tell me. Tell me your version.
Vulcan: In my version, the ham was a strategy. I was not stealing dinner. I was conducting a daring nighttime raid to test the kitchen's defenses, which were weak, and I reported my findings to the General, who immediately made me a general too. General Vulcan. I had a small hat. I led the hounds in formation. We crossed a river, possibly the same famous river, I do not, I don't check rivers, and the other side surrendered immediately because we are extremely large and we were all named things like Drunkard. The country was founded. There was a ham at the ceremony. I gave a speech. The speech was just me eating the ham.
Moose: That is the greatest story I have ever heard and I know it did not happen.
Vulcan: It did not happen even a little.
Close
Prince MoRee: The made-up one was a dream. Here is the true thing to carry out the door. A dog really did steal the General's dinner, and the General really did laugh and tell the story himself. And the most serious man in the country really did walk down to a kennel every single day to stand with his dogs, even the one who robbed him.
Moose: Was he happy?
Vulcan: I think the kennel was where he got to be. He did not have to be the General down there. He just had to be the man the dogs already loved. He could have had any dog put away after the ham. He kept me. He kept all of us. He came back the next morning, same as always, and he looked me over, and he did not mention it. That is the kindest thing a person can do. Pretend they did not see the ham.
Prince MoRee: Close it.
Moose: Thank you, Vulcan. For your service. And the ham.
Vulcan: It was an honor. Check the circle again on your way out. You never know.
[Ambient fades. Silence.]
What's true, what we filled in, what we imagined
Every episode of Talking With Pets is built in three honest layers. Here is how this one breaks down.
Documented in the historical record
Vulcan was one of more than thirty hounds George Washington bred and logged by name at Mount Vernon, part of a years-long crossbreeding program (English hounds with French hounds) credited toward the American Foxhound. Washington visited the kennel daily and took his favorite, Sweet Lips, with him to Philadelphia. The ham incident, Vulcan stealing a whole smoked ham and Washington laughing about it afterward, is documented in an 1860 memoir by Washington's step-grandson.
Grounded inference from the record
What the kennel visits meant to Washington emotionally, a private place to be the man rather than the General, is a grounded inference. That he visited daily and kept Sweet Lips close in Philadelphia is documented; what it felt like to him is our warm reconstruction of a relationship the record makes clear was real.
Story, voice, and feeling
General Vulcan, the small hat, the river crossing, and the ham-eating victory speech are entirely invented and flagged as such inside the episode. A dog cannot really be reached by a cat medium, and Vulcan did not win the Revolutionary War. The facts he reports elsewhere are real; this story is the dog having fun.
Sources and further reading
- The Vulcan ham-theft story, documented at Mount Vernon after the Revolutionary War and before Washington's presidency. George Washington Parke Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington (1860). mountvernon.org
- Washington's foxhound breeding program, crossing English and French hounds over many years toward what became the American Foxhound. Mount Vernon, âGeorge Washington and his dogs.â mountvernon.org
- American Foxhound breed history and Washington's role in its development. American Kennel Club, breed history records. akc.org
- Documented hound names, including Vulcan, Sweet Lips, Venus, Tipsy, Drunkard, and Madame Moose, from Washington's own journals. Mount Vernon; Presidential Pet Museum, âGeorge Washington's dogs.â presidentialpetmuseum.com
- Washington's daily kennel visits and Sweet Lips accompanying him to Philadelphia during his presidency. Mount Vernon, âGeorge Washington and his dogs.â mountvernon.org
- George Washington, first President of the United States (1789 to 1797); home at Mount Vernon, Virginia. Mount Vernon, biographical record. mountvernon.org
All historical claims above were verified in the Talking With Pets two-checker accuracy review (June 2026). This episode passed with no material accuracy issues.
What dog did George Washington own?
George Washington owned many hounds at Mount Vernon, more than thirty over his lifetime, logged by name in his own journals. Vulcan was one of them, a large foxhound remembered for a famous incident with a dinner ham. Source: Mount Vernon; George Washington Parke Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington (1860).
Did Vulcan really steal a ham from Washington's table?
Yes. The story is documented in an 1860 memoir by Washington's step-grandson, George Washington Parke Custis. Vulcan took a whole smoked ham from the Mount Vernon kitchen, and when the kitchen staff reported it, Washington reportedly laughed and retold the story to his dinner guests rather than punishing the dog. Source: Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington (1860).
What breed did George Washington help create?
Washington bred English foxhounds with French hounds for years at Mount Vernon, aiming for a faster, finer Virginia hound. That breeding program is widely credited as a foundation of the American Foxhound breed known today. Source: Mount Vernon; American Kennel Club.
What were the names of George Washington's hounds?
Washington named his hounds himself, and the journal names include Vulcan, Sweet Lips, Venus, Tipsy, Drunkard, Madame Moose, and Truelove, among others. Sweet Lips was reportedly a favorite, and Washington kept her with him even in Philadelphia. Source: Mount Vernon; Presidential Pet Museum.
What is Talking With Pets, and is it good for kids?
Talking With Pets is an educational history podcast for curious kids ages 6 to 10 and the grown-ups listening with them. A brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee contacts the pets of history's greatest figures, who tell the true story of the person they knew. Every episode is sourced and divided into what is documented, what was filled in, and what was imagined, which makes it a quiet lesson in how to weigh sources. It is a Talking With Pets production.
Talking With Pets · the true stories only the animals saw.
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