AFGHAN FILES

The files which follow here are taken from various sources [annotated] and are included as background information on the Afghan Hound, its genesis et cetera. This information shall, over time, be added to and should form, eventually, a reasonably well-researched background for this breed of hound.

This information is presented so that the interested visitor to this site might be well armed to forage forth and discover other very interesting tid-bits of data concerning this most interesting breed of dog.

Owing to the fact that, in setting up this site, so much time is allotted to each section for development, only so much information could be appended at this date. As mentioned above, this will change as time moves along.

Should you discover anything that might be of interest to us concerning the origins of the Afghan Hound, please send us an email to postmaster@zanzaraafghans.org., and we shall epublish your information as soon as we can [adding, of course, to whom the new material was found by/attributed to].

March 2004

ITEM 1: "Human breeding of dogs 'did not develop in a single region, but it developed more or less simultaneously in various parts of Eurasia.'" Juliet Clutton-Brock, Zoologist. Grzimek's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MAMMALS VOL. 4. Page 81.

 

ITEM 2: "Pariah dogs", mentioned by Clutton-Brock and defined as domesticated feral dogs which closely resemble the typical dingo in general terms. Ibid.

 

ITEM 3: Clutton-Brock goes further still "among those pariah dogs, it is possible to find forms that clearly resemble our present-day Greyhound breeds, of which the Arabian Sloughi (now also spread throughout North Africa) is probably among the earliest representatives. In addition there is the Saluki, which comes from Iran,, and the long-haired Afghan Hound, which is particularly strong, but which was probably crossed with other forms of Wolf." Ibid.

 

ITEM 4: Family CANIDAE CARNIVORA, 30 species with numerous varieties in 14 Genera. All are thought to descend from Wolf-Types: true domesticated dogs (300+ breeds), Feral Australian and New Guinea Dingos. Wild canids experience one heat per annum where the Domesticated type experiences two. Ibid, pg.50.

 

ITEM 5: Five items from various sources [as annotated]:

 

1. AFGHANISTANISM: Pre-occupation with far-off events (esp. Journalists). Very difficult to challenge veracity. Oxford Dictionary of the English Language, 1901.

2. Language of PUSHTOO. Tribe dominated by Patans. A tribe at different times subject to, and always connected with, the Kingdoms of Persia and Hindustan. 1784; H. VANSITTART LET. 3 MAR. in ASIATICK RES., (1790).

3. 1895 (see Barukhzy). 1905. H. De Bylandt "DOGS OF ALL NATIONS" I. 767 (caption) IDEAL AFGHAN GREYHOUND. 1911. "GREYHOUND STUDBOOK" 228...The President read a letter...admitting to the 'APPENDIX OF THE STUD BOOK' an imported Afghan Greyhound. 1925, E. M. Aitken "PETS", i, 28...FOR THE PURPOSE OF CLASSIFYING DOGS ON ITS REGISTERS THE KENNEL CLUB HAS TWO MAIN DIVISIONS, SPORTING BREEDS AND NON-SPORTING BREEDS. THESE AGAIN ARE SUBMITTED, THE MISCELLANEOUS SPORTING KINDS BEING AFGHAN HOUNDS, BASSET HOUNDS, BEAGLES (ETC.). 1950, Oxf. Jun. Encycl. IX, 191., "191 carvings on the walls of the Balkh Caves of Afghanistan of about 2200 BC show that already an Afghan Hound, almost the same as the Modern Afghan [Hound], was established in the country.".

4. BARUKHZY: ad. BARAKZI, name of the Afghan people. The Afghan Hound.

5. 1895, DAILY NEWS (LONDON) 11 DEC 2/1., AN AFGHAN BARUKHZY HOUND. 1927, DAILY TELEGRAPH (LONDON) 17 MAY 15/6., EVERY SORT OF DOG---FROM THE BARUKHZY OF CABUL...TO MY LADY'S PEKINGESE.

 

ITEM 6: Excerpt from Palmer's Fieldbook of Mammals by E. Laurence Palmer. Published by E. P. Dutton & Company as First Edition in 1957.

 

ITEM 7: An article by Drs. S. C. H. Barrett and D. Charlesworth which appeared in NATURE magazine Volume 352, No. 6335 8 August 1991 under the title Effects of a change in the level of inbreeding on the genetic load. This article demonstrates the results of extremely interesting and informative research into the significance of inbreeding and its impact on fitness of progeny: a very important concern for breeders of any type of organism! This article is reprinted with the kind permission of the authors, Dr. S. C. H. Barrett and Dr. D. Charlesworth and with the permission of Nature magazine. You can visit the journal site at <www.nature.com>.