The Afghan Hound Standard in detail

Article written by Mrs. Eta Pauptit in 1978, published for the first time in the vdOM Newsletter nr 25 2002

Animal breeders have to be conscious of an ideal specimen as a goal.  With this in mind standards are set up and to my opinion one has to be very very strict.  Speaking of oriental Hounds it is necessary to see them back in their native surroundings, hardship in that cruel climate.

Many, not to speak of almost all now, European and in many other parts of the world they are even more away from that original life, because of food and breeding program.  Several times the goal is an easygoing pet or an object to make money and not a highly intelligent alert Hound, lean and hard, not too big and not too small.  That goal must be as little a dog for the most possible work to do and so on and so on.

In Asia people have hardly enough food, so it was impossible to feed a bigger dog, as they needed for the job.  As I look back in History, our standard is made with Zardin and Sirdar in mind, though in those days they said we do breed all imported Hounds together and try to mingle the best together and select to the standard.  Most early imported dogs looked desert type and later mountain type appeared.  To my knowledge, no shorthair afghan is ever imported in these days.  It seems in the Kabul Museum a ceramic shows 2 shorthaired afghans but I didn’t see it while visiting the collection.  I know of a few occasions a shorthair afghan is bred back after 10 to 20 generations and those from partly different pedigrees.  Those are not to see as desert type as they are build like mountain type.  In recent days a row of nearly short hair afghans are imported for races but those carry the blood of the Indian greyhound or Rampur in a high degree.

This is to see around the head (ears and eyes), the tail (long and greyhound like) and particular the feet, those are round and more cat feet and upright and the 4 legs more straight as is better for sprinters.  As time went on breeders mostly tended to breed mountain type dogs, but for financial reasons and also because of the small base of material the desert type was bred in, and also a brindle “Pushum”  (so far as I remember a son of Bhalbhul) of different appearance.  Heavily coated and less Hound like in outline.

In Holland we were lucky to have a few breeders of mountain type, but later we could not avoid taking in a little desert type because of dangerous inbreeding on a too large scale.  Later in Holland we had a few direct imported bloodlines and so it was in the US most of them were used and we can trace them all the way in pedigrees.  To oversee all the material it is a fact to now we have to work with mostly a variable heritage and to me it is clear we still have to breed for the standard, say mountain type and it is a pity many breeder does not understand this.  They say “I like this and I like that” and therefore they breed.  This is absolutely faulty.  It is not what we like, it is what the standard says and to me it is clear.  From all the afghans bred each year only 5 % is up for the breeding program, but far and far more are used so it is very easy to see why the average standard is so terrible low.  This is a pity as our Hound came to us as an original fascinating thing of beauty, well balanced and Kingly and also up to hunt and also a charming lovely creature, very near to nature.

In all the years I looked at afghans I always had that ideal standard afghan in mind.  The first glance at the dog gives a general impression of type and a second look is for movement and there it is you get the picture more fully, a good build animal is not to be heard when moving, it hardly touched the ground and particular our breed so close to nature has to show this remarkable light springy effortless gait.  Speaking of type !  Well I never was able to make a good explanation of the meaning but it covers ”as near to standard as possible” and before going in details I want to explain.  I sort out the rows of faults.  Faults in typical points and those in soundness, for sure I want a sound animal but in the past as I had not much choice I always took the most typical (read : less typical faults) for my breeding program and took some lack in soundness in the bargain.  In those days we had also a lot more difficulties in growing up.  No shots, different climate, lots of skin trouble and so on.

As for typical points I always try to keep in mind the differences between the 2 or 3 imported types and as I select to the standard.

I come to the mountain type afghan :

The head must be a bigger part of the dog as the desert afghan’s head is smaller in proportion of the whole body.  The nose has mostly a tendency to be a little Roman, than a little stop and from nose tip to stop has to be as long as from stop to occiput.  The nose itself is broad with good nostrils and the back of the nose plenty of bone without being coarse.  The under jaw in balance and must be seen as in the desert type.  It more or less disappears in the upper jaw, here the chin line goes more up in the direction of the eyes as in the mountain type that under jaw line (in profile) tends to go down and flows in the beard.  The skull in the mountain type is broader around the eyes than between the ears.  Here we have the face of that fascinating human look (eyes set more human like).  There is room for the eyes in this position so the dog can look at you and if that dog has carriage, he looks down to you where the desert type looks up at you.  They stay with head and tail far more in a horizontal line.

The desert type head is broadest between the ears and mostly has a longer nose part.  The crossbreds tends to have both so the head goes coarse, broad at the eyes and ears and it looks common, some as Setters, some as Elsations. It may be the desert type ears to give the more Elsation expression as these are set on high and also are a bit smaller in fact.  As a mountain type has more bone and is in general more heavily build, the nose looks a little heavier in the mountain type, this is also because of better muscles as the neck and head is carried more high.  The head held more backwards and also the two are to be a counterweight in case the dog has to come to a sudden brake (stop) in that broken country.  Therefore it is a need to have well laid back shoulders because of this it seems here is a dip behind the shoulders, this is not so much the spine but the large shoulder blades laid so well again the brisket.  That brisket is so important for the mountain type as it has to have place for those neck and shoulder muscles, the quarters well hooked and under the body.

In the desert type the quarters stay more before the body so the shoulders are more against the neck and so the spine is more open to feel all the way.  Because of this the desert type is more a sprinter and also is a better trotter with longer stride but not so springy and apart from any other breed of dogs.  Be a sprinter, the desert type has not so much front breast and the deepest point is about the elbows (in profile) and goes right up to the back and there is an allover spring of ribs.

The mountain type has the front breast going down in the deepest point between the front legs and than goes on for a while straight before it takes a short cut to the tuck up and the spring of ribs goes far more back to take along all the ribs in a fine specimen.

This brings me to the loin.  The back from shoulders to tail is in the desert type more flat in one line and only hipbones to go out of it, but in the real mountain dog the loin goes a little up in the hipbone though it is flat in itself and always broad and neither it must have the greyhound rounding over the loins. Because of the heavier muscles, the hipbones of the mountain type are not so prominent but they are farther apart as the hindquarters had to be able to direct the dog in any direction at any moment.  The croup must be long and fall away more in the mountain type and the sit bones as far apart as the hipbones and the tail set on in the middle.  Seeing this it is clear, the set-on in the desert type is higher.  For this head and tail set the mountain type has more power and span in this part of his body and using this in his movement (trot) he seems to “hang in the air”.  This is the must for that springy gait.

As soon as greyhound lovers want to see the greyhound in an afghan and breed for this or look for it in a show it is sure the dog is loosing that most typical gait, and for this movement the afghan right away from the start set himself apart from any breed.  Now I can also mention looking at that afghan moving before my eyes.  The best build one is the best in harmony, the distance between occiput and dip and dip and tail set on must be the same.

Well now we are up to that tail.  It must be broad at the base as the dessert type is small at the base and does not tape to the end as the mountain type does.  This is also a little shorter.  We all know the tail is up in trot, halfway in canter or racing (even down) and down when standing.  It is ridiculous to held a tail up in the ring.  The standard in early days told us it ended mostly in a ring.

Today it says it had to be a ring.  Well, I saw that tight ringtail in mostly all Bell Murray and say in half the Ghazni imports but in the first generations of this type I saw many so called Setter tails, but all were broad on the base and in old descriptions of the crossing of types it is said the ring tail was more prominent in the desert type.  Many had more a full bow and I can admire this more as the full straight tail but it has not to touch the back when moving.  It is understandable we have an assortment of tails as our afghans seem to have some Tibet Mastiff blood (curled over the back, heavily fringed) and all the Mediterranean breeds coming to Asia had several types of tails.

About the feathering, the mountain type is more heavily coated without being bushy so it is best to keep as near as possible to the standard.  Maybe one day we are more uniform, but it seems difficult to cope with this old heritage.  The hindquarters must have that “good turn”, an old expression from former judges in Great Britain as they tried to understand this exclusive oriental breed.  To me it says just right the zigzag of the bones from pelvis to toes, long bones and heel very near to the ground with the feet placed well under the legs.  All 4 pastern not upright as in the desert type but halfway down and flexible.  The 4 feet stable on the floor and all toes well arched, going up in the middle like a hawk beak, broader fore as back but all 4 long.  The desert type are more upright all over not so much arched and higher heel but never the less they still had a sort of camel foot and not the cat-feet one sees nowadays in the ring.

The desert type coat is more feathered with some of the older ones with a real coat, but it was never the wooly undercoat from the mountain type growing through the upper coat and giving us that typical outfit from trousers with big feet with that break between and the smooth saddle.  For sure the smooth has only smooth coats.  Some as in the Saluki part of our Asian breeds, in fact it is a pity our standard forget to mention the smooth variety as it did in the Saluki standard.

The mountain type coat is more wooly, with a slight tendency to have a light wave to hold more air.  The crossbreds had lots of goat like texture and Harsh Bobtail like appearance, others got silky sort of straight coat.  This may come from the Rampur though smooth has a satin like coat.  Only the mountain type coat was waterproof to my opinion.  Well now we near color.  It’s said already many times : black, black-and-tan, are mountain type colors,  maybe from the mastiffs, the red with masks or solid rich golden also.  The desert type seems to breed true for fawn or sand colored with shaded mask, white, ivory and so on.  For me the blues and off colors fall apart in the row of dilution factors and in the heritage of the Rampur as I saw in old descriptions those old pure Rampur forms (not rebuild with grey) had wonderful shining blues, mouse greys and satin reddish coats. I saw a few myself.  Now they have also brindle but I’m not sure from where it comes.  Some Sloughis also have some brindling.  Personally I’m not so fond of it in an afghan.  About the white markings, well those old imports gave many white feet and white in the face and a more recent direct import in my own breeding gave a new row of white markings.  So it seems to be originated and only one can say we like it or not.  It has nothing to do with harmony in movement and building of our beloved creature of nature so at last there is a little room for personal liking. I’ve seen a few parti-colored afghans.  To me it came from a recent Saluki cross ?? or maybe Borzoi as is said ????? or the old crossing with an Afghan watch dog.

Also eye color is not a problem to me, as a Hunter it seems the lighter colored eyes are better, but I feel we have no proof of it.  Certainly most of the original imports in the Ghazni afghans and the offspring I had had golden eyes or brown ones, from the desert type it seems comes the darker eye, but in the crossbreds I saw many eyes with a light ring and this makes the eye look very round.

As I visited Afghanistan I saw 2 mountain type afghans, one red and one blue, both had medium dark eyes up to golden in the red one.  I admit 2 dogs don’t say a lot but it says at least, these two have still the same eyes as those in the early Twenties.

Now we have to deal a little with the whole body (in profile) as we take two Hounds from the same body length in the 2 types one sees that the desert type is higher on the legs, also the part of the quarters is smaller as the part between.  As I see the mountain type in profile I want the forequarters, the ribs and the hindquarters each the same part.  In the desert type the middle part is wider.  This is mostly the result of the more upright shoulder and less turn in the hindquarters.  In the mountain dog the neck flows slowly to the dip, in the other type it goes more with a quick turn.  The mountain type shows often a little higher in the rear when young and also as the dog is thinking about what to do.  The mountain type is more hooked so he can easily stretch up a little.  The desert type is stiffer in this point.  In crossbreds it is often seen the hindquarters are too short so it is sloping and this is an unforgivable fault in this breed anyway.  Speaking about crossbreds, it comes to my mind that our original oval skull from the mountain type seems to blow up above the eyes, in case this particular dog shows little topknot he shows it even more.  It looks coarse and mostly in this type of crossbreds the eyes are very light and the ears set high.

As I go through my knowledge of our afghans I feel I also can mention temperament as to me the mountain type has a lot more personality.  They are more straight and do not panic in strange situations.  I never saw a spooky original mountain type but I saw a lot of cringing crossbreds and it is said it comes from the desert type.  Personally I only knew a few pure desert types very near and those were medium tempered, docile and showed a lot of suspicion in new situations, never the less our standard reads “aloof, alert and kingly, etc.” , so I feel it is correct to prefer the mountain type behavior and I would not breed from nervous stock.  It always comes back in some generations later.

Important for the breed is  also good health.  Both types had a lot of trouble with the climate, but from those who survived we have a good heritage, also afghans are mostly very good mothers. I hope we keep this as it is a joy to follow a good litter and for me I feel guilty in case the breed process goes with difficulties.  Reading back this letter I feel I was dashing around a little but I do hope it will help you all to sort out the breeding stock.

Go back at photo’s of pure specimen of the 2 types one can see for yourself, but also keep in mind, the animals are mostly placed for the snapshot.  For this I liked best to pick the snapshots in freedom so the dog stands ore moves in his most natural way.  Make snaps like this from your own dogs, see what is right and wrong and take your lessons and do not forget first the frame has to be original movement goes with it and than take care for coat and if you want to glamour, but if you first want coat and glamour it’s a crime to the breed.  Please go to one of the glamorous man made breeds and do not harm our Asian breeds of old, old cultures.

Eta Pauptit

Epe, 1978 – revised 2002

Copyright(c) 2002

back