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This is one of our favourite dogs, mostly because of how beautiful their long, flowing coats are. It’s an aristocratic dog – tall and slender in stature, almost almond-shaped eyes, a strong, long neck. When you see this pooch in action, you know you’re dealing with something a little special!
These are good-spirited pups and socialise well, both with other dogs and other people, although they are somewhat suspicious of new faces and smells. They do need to be trained firmly too…Don’t think you can get away with being lazy here. If you fail to show the dog strict guidelines, they will misbehave and play up. We’ve learned this after a few years caring for to some pretty adamant Afghan’s! 😉
The Afghan Hound is not a dog that you can keep combined to a small space such as a flat or place without a garden, or at least some place that they can stretch their legs. You’ve seen how big these dogs can get – they WILL need the space to accommodate this growth. Guys can grow to about two and half feet tall!
You won’t want to leave them in the garden overnight. They are sensitive pooches by and will probably whine all night long if you don’t just let them back in the house. And you probably will in the end anyway, just to keep them quiet!
This beautiful dog will be a long-lasting member of your family if you treat them like one of the family, and can live for around fourteen years or so. This is fourteen years of maintenance though, and you must remember that. The stunning coats of these dogs won’t be stunning for long if you don’t maintain it, and this will mean things like regular baths, regular brushes and lots of special attention.
Believe it or not, the Afghan Hound is one of the oldest breeds of dogs and has been noted as far back as Ancient Egypt, where papyrus’were found with evidence of the breed. They are a glamorous dog, that’s for sure, and they look almost oriental to look at, despite the fact that they have been in the UK since the early 1900’s. Originally, as you can probably guess from the name, the dog comes from Afghanistan – the mountains of the country and this will probably give you an idea of the temperament and personality…
An avid hunter, if there’s a cat about, the Afghan Hound will dash after it. This can make its attention span quite short if there are a lot of things happening, and you might find that training can be difficult if you have other pets in the house. They sure love to be the centre of attention! In fact, training can be difficult full stop if you don’t have a firm handle on things. The Afghan is a stubborn breed!
A few final things that you should know about the Afghan Hound before considering them as the new addition to your family are:
*You’ll need a large garden.
*They need around two hours of exercise per day.
*They have a very long coat and DO shed.
*They’ll need brushing every day.
*They don’t respond well to rough handling – probably not advisable for families with young children, unless they grow up together.
*You’ll need a good fence around your garden or yard – these animals can JUMP! (They escape with ease!)
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*Image courtesy of Maggie Smith / FreeDigitalPhotos.net