I encountered my first Afghan Hound in the early seventies when my first opportunity to have a pet presented itself.

I contacted the local rescue to see what they had available and as luck would have it,they told me about this young female Afghan Hound. She had been badly neglected and in very poor condition.

I had never heard of or seen an Afghan Hound before so I had no idea what to expect. However, when she appeared at my door step with the rescue officer my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

Despite being bedraggled, dirty, skinny and full of fleas, I can honestly say that I had never seen anything so stunningly beautiful in my life before.

A few days later after bathing, grooming and delousing she was a sight to behold and there began a 35 year love affair with this exceptional dog breed.

It wasn’t until a few years later that I had the opportunity and facilities to introduce more than one of these wonderful creatures in to my family but pretty soon I was up to nine.

Until this day I have always had circa nine Afghan Hounds in my life and I can tell you they have been the most fulfilling years of my life.

Over that time I have owned many other breeds also, including mutts, as I have been actively involved in dog rescue. As such I have, as you would expect, in 35 years, experienced everything there is to know about dogs, their behaviors, health, care grooming etc.

Now normally I would advocate that dogs are individuals and their characteristics are attributed to their individual personalities and not their breed.

However, in the case of the Afghan Hounds I have to back down on that.

Yes, Afghan Hounds as a breed, are most definitely different to other breeds of dog and have often been described as cat like in characteristic.

Having lived with Afghan Hounds for so many years I have come to know them well and to those of you who are unfamiliar with the breed and are considering becoming an Afghan Hound owner I would give you these pointers:

• They are aloof which means that they like their own space, they will come for some love and attention on their terms and then will want to find somewhere to curl up and sleep. They love their sleep.
• They have bags of stamina and love to run and play so they need somewhere safe to this. They must always be kept on a leash or in a securely fenced area otherwise they would most definitely run off and cover long distances in a matter of minutes.
• As they are sight hounds they focus on distances and therefore are not aware of the dangers of traffic. Also, as natural hunters, small animals such cats, squirrels and even small dogs would be in peril.
• Grooming, in this respect they are high maintenance. They require brushing every other day and bathing every other week. On bathing day a good grooming session can take two or three hours and you would need a good collection of brushes, combs and preferably a special hair dryer. A show dog would probably need bathing once a week and you would need to familiarize yourself with the special shampoos and conditioners.

Luckily I discovered activities such as Afghan Hound Racing, showing and lure coursing and all of my Afghans participated in one or all of those activities.

For me the Afghan Hound is the king of dogs and two of my Afghan Hounds of the past will be remembered by me as the most remarkable and special characters that I have ever encountered in my life, animals or humans alike. They were just incredibly special characters and I will remember them forever.

If you are an experienced Afghan Hound owner or just starting out there is one book that I have read many times over and is always my point of reference whenever I need information about the breed. Afghan Hounds by Lynda Race, it is an exceptional read and illustrates the breed in tremendous detail, much better than I ever could.