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(Afghan Hound Denmark World Congress Report)DENMARK 1997
3rd World Afghan Congress Report #5
G. Jipping (Netherlands) Page2
"WHAT'S THE RIGHT TYPE?"Why the title of my speech "What's the right type"?
Because if there is anywhere on the world a discussion about the Afghan Hound, it's mostly about the type. That's logical for a breed that has so many type's at the moment. Earlier there were only the mountain type and the desert type, today there is the Dutch type, German type, French type, American type, and so on. As you hear almost every country has it's own type. And within the country borders they have their own struggle for a particular type, but that is mostly about kennel types.
Very often I ask myself the question what's the reason that so many breeders and judges think so differently about the right type of Afghan Hound. At every time I go back in history and I end with the first imports of the Afghan Hound by Mr Bell Murray, supporter of the so called desert type and Mrs Amps supporter of the so called Mountain Afghan Hound. Those two people and of course their supporters provided the discussion about the right type. There even was a discussion about the possibility of two entirely different breeds, the mountain Afghan Hound (Ghazni type) and the desert Afghan Hound (Bell Murray type). Also the well known Dutch specialist Mr Jungeling of the Barukhzy's kennel was convinced that they were two different breeds.
Me, I'm not completely convinced that there were two different breeds. I do not think that there were different types within the breeds in Afghanistan. But I don't believe they bred pure desert Afghan Hound or mountain Afghan Hound in Afghanistan. Because if they really did, how can it be that in earlier well known bloodlines, which were of pure mountain types, all types of problems appeared which were not typical for mountain Afghan, or how is it possible that there were typical mountain Afghan Hound puppies and desert Afghan Hound in one and the same nest?
Everyone who knows something about the dog's original country Afghanistan, can tell you that they have mountains and deserts over there, that's why I can imagine that in earlier days in the crossing between those areas there were mongrels between the mountain Afghan Hound and the Desert Afghan Hound, or even maybe with other sighthounds, who can tell? The top priority of breeding breeding Afghan Hound would not be the purity of the breed, no it was more important that the dog was suitable for the work he had to do. In my opinion Mr Bell Murray and Mrs Amps and all the others from the earlier days took the best Afghan Hound to their opinion. One could choose the more Saluki like Afghan Hound (desert type) or choose for the compact and strongly build dog with much coat (mountain type).
In these days in Holland the "Barukhzy's kennel of the famous Jungeling, and almost at the same time one of the best known kennels of the world the "Van de Oranje" owned by Mrs Eta Pauptit, bred dogs of the so called mountain type. It was mainly the Van Oranje Manege kennel which kept this type through strict selection, and preserved this type for us today. In my opinion these dogs resemble the real type the most of the earlier Afghan Hound from all the types in the world. I'm happy that even today there are still breeders in Holland as well as in other countries who breed this particular type.
I hope we will never lose this type.
G. Jipping June 97
Copyright(c) 1997
DENMARK CONGRESS 97
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