The Persian Hound = The Saluki

Until a few years I had no reason to worry about the breeding of Salukis in Germany. But nowadays, we get constantly puzzled by the permanent promotion of an entirely unfeathered hound as smooth Saluki, first to be seen in the ring and then described in recent reports, where they are called ("short hair-Salukis", i.e. smooth Salukis) and presented and propagated as Salukis according to standard in their whole variety of different types.

The "short-hair" Saluki has been "rediscovered" in the western countries. In some places it seems to be very important to make this "short-hair" Saluki fashionable again. For this reason some of the interested breeders even mix them with wellknown breeded feathered Saluki lines. This worries me, especially with regard to future breeding in Europe.

Persia (Iran) is uncontestedly the native home of the Saluki. But the standard has been made in Great Britain.

The standard in question has been set up by a few British people who before had lived in various regions of the Orient. To this small group belonged among others a brigadier who had travelled through the Orient as a member of the British Armed Forces. When should he have had time to hunt in Kurdistan with Salukis? This happened probably on the borderline of the Arabian desert with sheiks, that means in the border areas of the spreading territory of the Saluki and Sloughi (Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia).

Furthermore, European ladies who had lived well protected together with their husbands in the Orient at the beginning of the 20th century participated in fixing the standard. I do not intend to say anything against women, of course, but you should know from history that women in the Orient were excluded from partaking at the coursings with Oriental men and coursings organized by Europeans, were no real Oriental coursings.

Many Europeans received Salukis or Sloughis as a present after a hunt. These hounds were usually pure-bred. But these Europeans could not distinguish that there were different breeds of oriental hounds. This must have been the reason that it was possible throughout decades to breed together Saluki, Sloughi and Azawak according to the Standard from 1923. So these different breeds were considered as one breed in the exhibition ring. Therefore today it happens that one has feathered and unfeathered hounds in one litter of puppies where the appearance is tending to Sloughi and Saluki. How can this happen?

The British standard does not fix a country of origin. The only reason for this is because those several Europeans/Englishmen who assembled for its foundation owned or knew similiar looking hounds from different colonial countries at the beginning of the 20th century. The importers were not aware of the differences in between the breeds Saluki, Sloughi and Azawakh, also when possessing pure-bred hounds. The "short-haired Salukis" originated in the breed results from those days. It is an intermixture.

Here an example how intermixture could even have started already in Iran: When, for instance, a diplomat in Teheran received a Saluki as gift, the other members of the embassy wanted to have also such an elegant animal. Servants were then given orders to get such a hound from the same country of origin.

In Teheran, however, these people are generally shiite muslim and for them dogs in general are considered as impure. These servants, unfamiliar with this object of desire, asked in return other people in town to get a Saluki. But as the real pure Salukis do not run about uncontrolled in cities, similar looking dogs were taken to satisfy the members of the embassy quickly, not at least to get a Bakschisch.

The region of origin is after all about 1.000 km far off from Teheran. It was easier to get dogs similar to Salukis from passing by nomads, who travelled with different kind of dogs. These Saluki cross breeds, in which the Europeans hardly saw any difference, were then brought together with pure-bred Salukis to get second growths.

What is the meaning of line, hair and speed? The proud owners of these dogs took them along when returning to their home countries and described them as Salukis. You see, that it is possible, indeed, to import even cross breeds from the Iran. In Britain it was not necessary for a Saluki or Sloughi to prove their ability for coursing different kinds of game in different territory according to oriental standards. But it was realised that a Saluki hunted merely by sight and not with its nose. For this reason one even did cross breeding with setters in order to improve the sense of smell for the fox hunts. In the USA they even did introduce a lot more other breedings of this kind.

Because the quality of the breeding in the region of origin of the Salukis is often questioned, we would like to show you under which circumstances breeding is done there:

The region of the Saluki-origin extends from the Ararat mountains, border region of Kurdistan, along Turkey and Iraq, from Kirmanschah to the north-west of Iran. The spreading area it much vaster. But in the border areas, there it is where the cross breeds originally came from (Syria, Iraq and Saudi-Arabia). In the region of origin there are of course no exhibitions and races, to select the Salukis according to their shown abilities.

There exists also nothing like breeding for sentimental reasons. Here in Germany we often heard the opinion, that the blood line has to be maintained at all events, despite of obvious deficiencies and characteristic peculiarities, which often are noticed already by obvious fear.

The Saluki must be able to hunt. That is his real task. He has not only to be very quick but has also to possess an enormous capibility of endurance (called staying power when talking of horses) and quick recovering as well. For these tasks he needs the right figure as much as the right character which must be strong and firm. He must have the right hair. For example, his toes have to be protected by tufts of hair to avoid lesions during coursings on rocky surface. He needs more hair than a Sloughi to survive the cold winter. Without the right shape he will not be quick and speedy enough to hunt the ibex, the ram and the hare.


You may be sure that the owner of a pure-bred Saluki will only breed his Saluki together with an equal one, that means it has got to be perfect in every respect. Because of this the owner does not travel distances of 1000 - 2000 km, but stays in the above described Saluki-area. He would never take a dog from nomads for breeding. Therefore in this region the admirers of the Saluki will always have the same kind of breeding.

There are only differences in hair colour and the size of hounds. The hair may be some time longer and some time shorter. But there will always be more or less feathers at the ears (although clipped) and at the tail, and you will never find so few and short hairs on them like on these absolutely unfeathered "short-haired Salukis" mentioned above.

Probably, some of these Salukis have been be sold or given away in the course of time and have also come into the possession of a few Europeans. But there are hardly any Europeans, who have come into this partly impassable area. There did not exist anything, which was of any use to them. One passed through this region very quickly only in order to get elsewhere, Afghanistan or India for example. There existed of course also free uncontrolled or chased away cross breed Salukis in Kurdistan and Arabia. Nomads took them along or left them behind, because the Sloughi cross breeds in the home country of the Salukis could not be used for the coursing. The dogs have to look after themselves when living with the nomads. Feeding is very rare. These cross breeds looked partly really like pure breeds. Therefore they were often taken home from western travellers to their countries. After breeding the different cross breedings were quite visible. Without any problems they were considered as pure-bred hounds in Europe. The Saluki cannot survive in the desert region of the Tuaregs because of the climate. Sloughis cannot exist in the impassable, partly rocky Saluki area with the tremendous cold winter. In our opinion the short-haired Saluki, now presented to us in Europe, is a mixture of a Saluki and a Sloughi. It is not especially bred in the region of origin.


The reason for this is that it cannot be used for the Saluki hunt, because it lacks the physical ability for it. It is not able to hunt like a pure-bred genuine Saluki. I an quite sure of this. Only some years ago again some greyhounds and Salukis have been imported by Arabs from Europe to Saudi Arabia. They did not have any chance to survive though air-condition had been installed in their kennel.

In earlier times one has tried to cross Salukis and Sloughis in the border areas of these two races, in order to get a hound which is suited for both climate zones. The aim was to get a hound which was as fast as a Saluki and with short hair of a Sloughi (because of the heat). It was an intended breed, which did not bring the wanted results. Therefore one should not try to create a "short-haired Saluki" from it now. NOW it is a defective breeding development from the USA, GB and the Northern countries. Because of ignorance one does follow this fashionable trend.

Why does not exists anything like a short-haired Barsoi, a long-haired Slougi or a long-haired greyhound etc.? Why should only the Saluki have these completely different tendencies? I kindly ask the responsible people in charge of the Saluki standards to think about the different aspects and make possible changes.

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Iraj Sattarzadeh, 1986