Group: Group 4 (Hounds)
History:

General Appearance: The gait of the Afghan Hound should be smooth and springy with a style of high order. The whole appearance of the dog should give the impression of strength and dignity combining speed and power. The head must be held proudly.

Characteristics: The Afghan Hound should be dignified and aloof with a certain keen fierceness. The eastern or oriental expression is typical of the breed. The Afghan looks at and through one.

Temperament: The Afghan Hound should be dignified and aloof with a certain keen fierceness.

Head And Skull: Skull long, not too narrow with prominent occiput. Foreface long with punishing jaws and slight stop. The skull well balanced and surmounted by a long "top knot". Nose preferably black, but liver is no fault in light coloured dogs.

Eyes: Should be dark for preference, but golden colour is not debarred. Nearly triangular, slanting slightly upwards from the inner corner to the outer.

Ears: Set low and well back, carried close to the head. Covered with long silky hair.

Mouth: Level.

Neck: Long, strong with proud carriage of the head.

Forequarters: Shoulders long and sloping, well set back, well muscled and strong without being loaded. Forelegs straight and well boned, straight with shoulder, elbows held in.

Body: Back level, moderate length, well muscled, the back falling slightly away to the stern. Loin straight, broad and rather short. Hip-bones rather prominent and wide apart. A fair spring of ribs and good depth of chest.

Hindquarters: Powerful, well bent and well turned stifles. Great length between hip and hock with a comparatively short distance between hock and foot. The dewclaws may be removed or remain at the discretion of the breeder.

Feet: Forefeet strong and very large, both in length and breadth, and covered with long, thick hair; toes arched. Pasterns long and springy, especially in front, and pads well down on the ground. Hindfeet long, but not quite so broad as forefeet, covered with long, thick hair.

Tail: Not too short. Set on low with ring at the end. Raised when in action. Sparsely feathered.

Gait/Movement: The gait of the Afghan Hound should be smooth and springy with a style of high order. The head must be held proudly. The tail is raised when in action.

Coat: Long and very fine texture on ribs, fore- and hindquarters and flanks. From the shoulder backwards and along the saddle, the hair should be short and close in mature dogs. Hair long from the forehead backward, with a distinct silky "top knot". On the foreface the hair is short, as on the back. Ears and legs well coated. Pasterns can be bare. Coat must be allowed to develop naturally.

Colour: All colours are acceptable.

Sizes: Ideal height: Dogs 68-74 cms (27-29 ins)
Bitches 5-8 cms (2-3 ins) smaller.

Faults: Any appearance of coarseness.
Skull too wide and foreface too short. Weak underjaw.
Large, round or full eyes.
Neck should never be too short or thick.
Back too long or too short.

Notes: Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.

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If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself. Eubie Blake (1883-1983)
http://www.keshwar-afghans.com

I don't know if this will change when the UK standard is updated.

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If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself. Eubie Blake (1883-1983)
http://www.keshwar-afghans.com

Clarification of a standard is o.k. but there is no reason why the originally agreed standard should be changed. It seems that standards are more likely to be changed to suit the fads of the day

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Afghan Hounds International

UK Pedigree Administrator

Personally I think the worst thing that happened to the British standard was when this paragraph was deleted:

>>Faults: Any appearance of coarseness.
Skull too wide and foreface too short. Weak underjaw.
Large, round or full eyes.
Neck should never be too short or thick.
Back too long or too short.<<

After that change was made we saw some of the coarsest and clunkiest dogs emerge - some of the dogs that were shown in the 60s looking like bitches in comparison with some of the dogs that came along after the standard was changed. The old expression "his head was big enough to land a 747" acquired new meaning...... There was no such thing as "too wide", and with no reference to coarseness being a fault people jumped on the bandwagon that the head should not be too narrow ie meaning wide was better. Too narrow was bad, too wide was not. Ugh.

Stephanie

Yes, there have been some big dogs and bitches for that matter, sometimes well over standard and sometimes you couldn't tell the bitches from the dogs.
However it does seem that quality of Afghans has been fluctuating worldwide, so lets hope that none of us totally lose sight of what Afghans should be like.
Some people may have lost their way, and occasionally if they have any influence in the breed, we may then see undesirable things becoming acceptable.
It's that old adage, some (not all I hasten to add) protest that straight tails, coarse heads, small feet, etc, don't really matter too much, ("read I have some dogs with these faults") and when their stock changes and improves, these points become undesirable again.

It's a pity we can't have a worldwide standard agreed upon by concensus, and then stick to it.

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Afghan Hounds International

UK Pedigree Administrator

Oh, I think UK Afghan Hounds have improved immensely in the past several years compared to what I saw when I was back for visits in the 80s and early 90s. Somehow people had lost their way - and yes, they had to find it again by accepting that imports were not the evil of all time! I lived through all of that when I lived there .... and they had their chances but were too blinded by xenophobic hatred of imported Afghan Hounds, forgetting that they all originated in Afghanistan anyway! When I was back there one year a well known breeder who started out at the same time I did actually had the good grace to come up to me and tell me that they were wrong, that they should have used Talisman when they had the chance. Unfortunately it was too late.

I also think that even though we have to judge by the standards in place in the various countries ie counting teeth in some countries, the extra inch in height in others, these are specific to the countries in question. But the standards as describe the dogs themselves should be looked at and compared with other standards to see if maybe, just maybe, the INTERPRETATION of the standard is not always correct. The UK/FCI standards are really more based on interpretation than specifics after all.

Stephanie

I agree

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Afghan Hounds International

UK Pedigree Administrator