Bastard's girls

"Rip her! Rip her! Rip her!"

- Ramsay Bolton to his hounds as they rip apart Tansy.

The Bastard's girls are a pack of vicious dogs bred by Ramsay Bolton.

Background
The Bastard's girls are the name given by some to the pack of dogs bred by Ramsay Snow at The Dreadfort to serve as hunting dogs, trackers, and, on occasion, executioners. The pack is made up solely of bitches, as per their nickname. Myranda, a servant of House Bolton, and later Ramsay's bedwarmer and lover, was the daughter of the Dreadfort's kennelmaster. Ramsay would at one point remark of how she had stinked of dog.

Following the captive Theon Greyjoy's torture and breaking at Ramsay's hands, and adoption of the identity of "Reek", a meek and submissive servant of House Bolton, he is transferred from the dungeons to the kennels, where he dwells and sleeps alongside the hounds.

The pack is comprised of at least two different breeds of dog, the more common a large, muscular, black-haired dog commonly used for killing, and a smaller, more slender brown-haired dog typically used for tracking.

Ramsay often starves his hounds as to increase their aggression and sate them with his human victims, who are devoured alive for his amusement.

Season 4
Theon accompanies the pack, Ramsay and Myranda, as they hunt down Tansy, a serving girl in the Dreadfort who had caught Myranda's ire. As the hounds chase after her, Ramsay and Myranda take shots at her with their bows, and Theon struggles to keep up with his limp. After Myranda severely injures Tansy with an arrow to the thigh, Ramsay has the dogs kill Tansy, tearing her apart before Theon's eyes as she screams.

When Yara Greyjoy attempts to rescue Theon from the Dreadfort, she finds him at the castle's kennels. After most of Yara's comrades are killed in the ensuing skirmish and Theon bites her to return to his cage, Ramsay releases the hounds, which had grown restless and agitated because of the fighting. Given up on Theon as already dead, the Ironborn flee the hounds and return to their Longship.

The girls are moved to Winterfell along with the rest of House Bolton, and take up residence in Winterfell's kennels.

Season 5
Myranda directs Sansa Stark to the kennels, where she finds Theon, passing the hounds in the process, who regard her viciously.

Myranda later tells Sansa of the various women in Ramsay's life who he had grown bored of and disposed of in one way another, including Violet. She glibly regards Tansy's fate, boasting of how Ramsay had let her come along for that hunt.

Season 6
Two tracking hounds are sent with a group of Bolton men to find and retrieve Sansa and Theon after they escape Winterfell. Though Sansa and Theon cross the river to throw off their scent to stop the hounds tracking them, they are found regardless, though Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne intervene and rescue Sansa and Theon. The hounds, not bred for combat like their larger and more muscular counterparts, are either killed or driven off by the fighting.

In Winterfell, after finding Myranda's corpse, Ramsay has Maester Wolkan feed it to the hounds, not wanting to waste "good meat".

Immediately after murdering his father Roose Bolton, Ramsay lures his stepmother and newborn brother to the kennels, where he has them torn apart by his loyal hounds, leaving him the sole surviving member of House Bolton.

After Ramsay is defeated and taken into custody after the Battle of the Bastards, he is locked inside the kennels and with his hounds loose from their cages. Despite being confident that his dogs are loyal and won't harm him, Ramsay has not fed them for over a week, so the hounds' hunger ultimately overcomes their loyalty, and after a brief moment of hesitation, they savagely devour their master alive. This occurs ironically at the same place where he killed his stepmother and brother, in a roundabout way avenging their deaths, as well as the deaths of Tansy and his many other victims.

Quotes
"Sit! Down! Down! Down! Down! Down! Ahhhhhhh!"

- Ramsay being devoured by his hounds.

Behind the Scenes
Iwan Rheon first confirmed their appearance in the TV series when he tweeted a set photo of them in their kennel.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the "Bastard's girls" are how Theon Greyjoy refers to Ramsay Bolton's pack of hunting dogs.

Ramsay uses the hounds to partake in his sick practice of releasing women naked into the Bolton Forests where he hunts them for sport after giving them half a day's head start. The pack is made up of all vicious, mean tempered bitches. The dogs are looked after by the kennelmaster Ben Bones of the Dreadfort who under Ramsay's instructions also trained them to kill wolves.

Those women he hunts that give him good sport are given a quick death (after being raped) and in "honor" of the hunt, Ramsay names a new bitch pup after the woman. Those women that do not give him good sport are still raped, but are not given a quick death: Ramsay subsequently flays them alive, and they do not get a dog named after them. His current pack consists of;

Following the fall of Moat Cailin, Ramsay gives Theon a "promotion": instead of being taken back to the dungeons of Dreadfort, Ramsay announces that Theon will become a dog. The kennelmaster Ben Bones makes a collar for Theon, and he is allowed to sleep with the Bastard's Girls. Theon befriends the dogs and finds their company much better than in the dungeons.
 * Grey Jeyne
 * Helicent
 * Jez
 * Alison
 * Kyra
 * Maude
 * Red Jeyne
 * Sara
 * Willow

During a feast held in Barrowton, two of the dogs - Maude and Grey Jeyne - provide Ramsay and his men the night’s best entertainment, by fighting against one of Lord Stout’s hounds over a bone. The fight ends quite expectedly: Ramsay's savage dogs tear the old hound apart.

​See also

 * (spoilers from the books)