Afghan hound comes in many many colors and all colors are good. There are self-mass white afghans there are pure black afghans, gold black and tan black and cream brindle's could sort of go on blues as well so they really cover any color they should have a long nose. Greyhound, only they're more angulated, they've got long coats of all. Afghans should have a saddle where we've got sort of a very close coat here. Afghan hounds are far more heavily coated than others, often the dogs they're more heavily coated in the bitches because bitches tend to throw quite a lot of coat following their seasons. A lot of Afghans are shown all over the UK and also on the continent. Also, people race Afghan and have a lot of fun doing this. There are several areas in the world where they have race meetings usually on tracks. Afghan hounds are very fast they're not as fast as a greyhound but they do cover very good speed.
What was the breed originally bred for?
They come as their name suggests from Afghanistan, they were used by tribesmen for hunting. People say that they used to hunt snow leopards but that's never been proved and it might not be true but they were used for all types of hunting there. They were really treasured by the tribesmen there. They were known originally as Tarzi and there are still some in Afghanistan but probably not anything like the coats that these have got on them now obviously the original ones where they sort of tore through the deserts and through the rocks etc would have torn coat off and it would have got matted so those dogs didn't have anything like you know what you see in the way of coat now.
Personality:
Afghan hound usually is little aloof with strangers when they first meet them but usually one straight round they're pretty good with children.
But most Afghans have got very steady temperament there is always the odd exception but we think that's true of every breed but generally, they make quite a good family dog. They can be affectionate dogs but having had so many over the years we found that they vary a lot in their temperaments really some of them like this particular dog would sit for hours having fussed made of him. But we have had some that have been quite aloof and really don't really want a lot of fuss and sort of far more independent so we think you get a variation of temperament. We think Afghan hounds will be fine with other animals with cats as long as they're brought up with them. It would not be that easy to bring a cat into a home where you had adult Afghans because their instinct is to chase and if a cat went racing across lawn they would be behind. We would certainly have not encouraged anybody who works all day to have had a puppy. Afghans aren't a noisy breed they don't bark awful a lot unless there is something to be able to bark at. We think it would raise the alarm pretty soon. If you had an intruder or people around the place that they didn't know but they're not a dog that just barks for the sake of barking.
Exercise:
Adult Afghan hound needs a lot of exercise if you are lucky to have land here that they can run around freely all day. Not everybody has that and therefore if you're not able to let them have free running then they need a lot of walking. They will get bored very easily if they don't get a lot of exercise. It's very difficult to allow Afghans to run freely off the lead. We are not going to say that you can't do it because there are those that do with a modicum of success with them coming back but if you do let Afghans off the leads. You've got to be very that you're in a very safe environment because they most definitely would chase livestock and also you've got to be prepared to wait until they're ready to come back to you. We have to say if you have a lot of lands, you are lucky so they have a tremendous amount of free running but most people don't let them off the lead.
Training and intelligence:
Afghans aren't noted for their obedience they're very self-willed and independent. Our standard says that they should look at one and through one and that's more or less what they do when you ask them to do anything.. Generally they're very independent and if you try to teach some tips and tricks or anything like that they would look at you as if you were absolutely mad. Afghan hound on average we would say pretty good feeders, you do get some that aren't so keen on food and take a lot of encouragement you get others that are absolute gluttons. They're usually quite easy to please. Afghan puppies enjoy playing with toys but they pretty soon grow out of it. They don't normally play with toys much as adults, they might play tug of war with a piece of rope or your clothing or anything if they can get hold of it but they don't respond well to two toys at all.
Grooming:
Afghan hound, as you could imagine, need an awful lot of grooming, most Afghans are bathed once a week than blow-dried from root to end and so you're talking in an adult male of it taking you around to two and a half hours maybe a little bit less with a female. Some males are very heavily coated and could take anything up to four hours to do and this is really a weekly chore there's no shortcut to it. It will just mat everywhere, they've got like a wool coat and it's got not got any natural spring to it so on all the friction areas behind the arms behind the ears in the groin any one of a number of places. If they're not groomed really regularly will mat up and once they mat up it's very difficult to get the mats out and totally unfair on the job as well. You can use several different types of brushes on them some people use just a pin brush other people swear by Mason Pearson's. But you definitely need a brush that will penetrate right through to the skin. There are people that do daily grooming. It depends on the texture of the Afghans coat the dogs pick up dust and dirt in the garden that means that when you brush the coat you can feel the brush pulling and snagging in the coat so that's why we don't do it. Where you groom the dogs on a weekly basis what's going to come out generally comes out in the brush, the bitches often lose a lot of coat following their seasons they tend to have phantom pregnancies and therefore they throw out all the coat under their tummy and sometimes all their body coat in preparation for their imaginary litter they're going to have but you don't get an awful lot of coat come off on furniture and on your clothes not if the dogs groomed regularly anyway.
Health:
Anybody considering having Afghan hound dogs that you firstly need a terrific sense of humor they're very much a clown in a lot of ways. They can be quite unruly in the house particularly when they're young so that you need to be able to take on board that you're prepared to have a dog that might be tearing around your house and jumping on and off your furniture. As a youngster in particularly, you've got to be prepared that you have a dog that you might not be able to let off the lead and you've also got to be prepared to put in a lot of time on keeping their coats looking like this dog stars.
Because they do not look like this by accident and they most certainly don't look like this. If they're neglected when people go to buy a puppy they should always see the puppy with their mother they can check then that the mothers of sound temperament. The male Afghan hound is usually several inches taller than the bitches and so if space in your house is at a premium may be a bitch is a better bet for you. We don't think there's an awful lot of difference in the temperaments of the two Afghan hound males when they get about 6/10 to become a little bit more sedate they tend to become a bit lazy if you let them bitches ten not to get like that they tend to still be springing around the place at ten years old something. Also, that should be thought about is the fencing in your garden. They're pretty good escape artists some of them can jump they don't all jump. But some of them can and there are others that might dig but they certainly need a garden that is well and truly dog proof else or else they will try to escape especially if there's something like a cat in the next-door garden. People need to do a lot of research before they buy the breed, there are shows that people can go to where they can look around and chat to breeders and pick up different bits of information and maybe make a decision about what color they'd like and whether they want a dog or a bitch. Not many Afghan hounds are bred nowadays in compared with how they were say forty years ago thankfully people think twice about it. Before they have a litter nearly all Afghan breeders will ask a lot of questions of prospective puppy buyers and check that they're the right home for an Afghan to go to.