I am going to very politely disagree with Samira, though my caveat is that I am still learning about other breeds of sighthounds too. I think the books by Sir T will be interesting in this.
Now, much of my current info on this particular subject of "breeds" comes from Elizabeth Dawsari who spent years in the ME with salukis and Bedouin -- which is a rare thing for a woman of the West to do. She is an awesome lady though, with TONS of info on the breed as well as Babson Arabians -- my next big project after falcons. Salukis have been described as one of the most diverse of the sighthound breeds. The reasons are varied according to who you talk to, but modern science may help uncover some of the mystery. Though we have still to piece together the mystery of where *human breeds* such as Armenians, Turkomen, etal came from. And those who know about the Middle East, know that the peoples have (per documentation!) always travelled and moved as they do now -- you have Iranians living in Sudan, Jordanians in Turkey, Armenians in Afghanistan, etc.. etc.... They manage to keep their heritage intact despite the diaspora. Which means that if the humans are hard to trace, despite their own attention to their heritage; dogs may be harder to trace. Though researchers such as Sir T has made a literary attempt. As for hair length and amount, specifically... Saluki remains have been found by archeologists and alive today in places as far south as Egypt, and through Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi, Afghanistan, Armenia, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, etal. In all of these places, salukis look different. Some (in pictation and in reality) have more feathering, and some less. It's partially to do with climate, but not entirely. Some saluki are as hairy as Afghan hounds! My Naya is from Saudi, and she's going to get pretty hairy herself. Size is more indicative of region. Smaller saluki are better at mountainous areas and are built for chasing rabbit. Larger saluki are better for desert course and hunting large game. As far as modern breeding to type, I think it's too early to say you would have only 5% viable dogs come out of the cross-types. Look at Dougie and his fellow Talbots! If you were to look at hom many pups are "culled" from purebred stock, I am sure you would find the statistics to be legitimately higher. Jonneth In a message dated 12/31/2004 8:24:02 AM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I have a friend in th UK who has a Saluki X Greyhound, Jonty, who is the prettiest "Saluki" I've ever seen. Looking at modern sighthound breeds, one can pretty trace the eastward Islamic expansion by looking at the dogs, and how they got larger and hairier as they moved nothwards (Salukis -> Afghans -> Borzoi). It's harder going west, except for finding the Pharoah Hound on Malta and the Ibizan Hound in the Balearics. As far as breeding "outside the box", so to speak, it *could* be useful....if one were willing to ruthlessly cull probably 95% of the dogs produced--after they were grown enough to evaluate performance, at around a year. Which, let's face it, is what has made the racing Greyhound what it is today. Only the fastest racers were allowed to live and breed. It's one reason that there is far less incidence of hereditary health problems in NGA Greyhounds as compared to AKC dogs. And actually, this has been done in the UK for a very long time. Lurchers were bred originally to be poachers' dogs...ones that would have the Greyhound speed, and the intelligence of a herding breed. In the UK, "lurchers" are usually defined as a cross between a Greyhound or Whippet and a herding breed (usually a border collie). A cross between two sighthounds is called a "longdog". Of course, now lurchers have become the new "yuppie" dog in the UK. There are even lurcher shows and a lurcher registry. There goes the neighborhood! <G> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/PJ_qlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SCA_Coursing/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
