This image comes from a piece in the Afghan Hound Times.
All the historical information comes from Jess Ruffner, who has the DesertWindHounds blog.
Apparently some Afghan hound sources counted two dogs, Khelat and Kushki, as Afghan hounds.
They were nothing of the sort.
They were both dogs that we’d recognize as Central Asian ovtcharkas. No description of Kushki is given– other than the dog was creamy white.
But Khelat appears to be an ovtcharka with a twist– a shaggy, poodle-type coat.
These dogs were imported to England in the 1880’s, but a more Ovtcharka-looking dog named “Shere Ali” was exhibited at Crufts in 1879– right in the middle of the Second Afghan War.
The caption for the drawing says “Afghan dog”, i.e., dog from Aghanistan. Not necessarily an “Afghan Hound” of the breed known by that name today. It could well be an ovtcharka — there are at least four varieties recognized, one of which is a shaggy-coated sort resembling Khelat.
That’s what Jess did with the source, but there are sources that say these are Afghan hounds.
You run into some problems with classification of Afghan hounds in the 1800s. They were called ‘Persian greyhounds’ by pretty much everybody except the natives, so you can find a mention of a Persian greyhound and you have to track down where it came from. The earliest official use of ‘Afghan greyhound’ I have found is in an 1881 show catalog.
The Afghan Hound has a characteristic gait, I believe. It kicks out behind and lifts its feet high in front. What is that all about? Is its ancestry different from other sighthounds or is there some other explanation? Is there any difference in gait at a gallop?
(If this is a really big subject, just tell me to go Google. Thanks.)
That sort of trotting gait is a show-ring construct, a debasement of the high-headed, light-footed movement said to be a characteristic of the breed. Very doubtful if true working hounds would travel in that manner.
You can google but you won’t get anything. The history of the Afghan hound is a Western history, of a dog selected for show dog characteristics. Even the racing dogs came somewhat later in the development of the Western population.
Salukis and Afghans are so closely related, genetically, that even dogs that have been bred within separated closed populations for almost a century cluster together (caveat: small sample size.) It’s my opinion, which may mean nothing, that the Afghan hound is part of the Saluki/Tazi complex and not a ‘breed’ as we understand it in the West. It does not fit the ‘breed defined by isolation’ definition, like Azawakh or Basenji, either. It is a sub-population of Saluki/Tazi.
The Afghan was brought to the West in two initial kennel populations, the Ghaznis and the Bell-Murrays. IIRC it was some of the Bell-Murrays that had the bouncy gait. The modern gait with the flinging, is, as M.R.S. states, a construct for the show ring. One of my mine does it; it is highly inefficient and absolutely not something I would breed for. Dogs that exhibit this gait also tend to be inefficient at the gallop, as well, too much up and down movement. I cannot imagine a hunter breeding for such a gait. This is a running dog, not a trotting dog. Trotting is for getting where you’re going, running is what you do when you get there.
A typical Western Afghan should have a springy gait as part of it’s breed characteristics, as defined by the Victorian definition of breed, where we must be different than the Saluki, which should have a light, floating gait. I will admit to being intellectually inconsistent; I prefer a springy, powerful gait in my Afghans and like dogs that give an impression of being coiled and ready to spring in any direction. IME, such dogs are excellent jumpers. It’s not a necessity, though, and dogs that fling their feet out behind them and exhibit very loose ligament connections in order to create great reach in the front are not typical, efficient, or very functional. Don’t get me started on sidegait or TRAD.
Thank you. I’m glad to hear that the whole breed hasn’t been corrupted with an inefficient gait.
En la literatura sobre el origen de los perros de caza siempre aparece la misma teoría de la misma zona geográfica:
Aunque las fronteras han cambiado con el paso del tiempo.
Alguien ha escrito que el origen del “espaniel bretón frances” es un cruce con un perro afgano.
Otros dicen que los “afganos perros” son el origen de perros de agua “Turcos” de España y Portugal.
Y en la formación de “golden” argumentan que hay pastor ruso.
En cualquier caso la imagen es “canis pastoralis” de pelo duro¿? base del “deutsch drahthaar” y “griffons”.
Esta literatura es la mitología. No hay ninguna relación entre estos galgos y perdigueros y retrieveres y spanieles.
I love Afghan hounds they are so beautiful!