Saluki Gazelle Hound Database and Breed Information Exchange (Saluki World Congress) |
1995 SALUKI WORLD CONGRESS REPORT (Page 2)
Bo Bengston
When I heard that you were planning this after breed judging. I thought maybe five people would stay. So l am very impressed thal so many of you have braved ihe elements and are with us and I think this is due to the illustrious panel that has been assembled. This is the first Internahonal Saluki Congress and I think as the world grows smaller and as the need for communicalion across the borders gets more and more important, it is happening wilhin every breed that a few individuals whose ambition and wide view of the breed would want to get together and benefit from on the oiher side of the world. And this is happening now in Salukis and I hope there will be follow ups in other countries eventually. It started first with - I think the first of any breed was probably the Borzois.
I have a number of questions here for the panelists and the format of this congress is: I'll ask my question and I hope you will have some thought provoking answers. I m sure you will as you cover not only a wide geographical area but also many differenr aspects of the breed, history, conformation showing. Iure coursing, open field coursing and my first question is:
How did you get involved into Salukis and when?
GEORGE BELL
OH! I will have to think about that. I was first interested in coursing with wild cat and it was a liltle bit impractical keeping wild cats in rhe city. So I learned about the Saluki and its coursing prowess it was very competitive with Ihe fastest canine greyhound, where they coursed with at Merced. So I said: well I think that's the animal for me. My first Saluki was a coursing Saluki. that I bought from Srinagar in 1969.
UTE LENNARTZ
I was raised with dogs at home. my mother had Bedlington's. She showed dogs and so I first saw Salukis in the sixties. And when I saw them for the first time I decided it was te breed for me. I knew when I was able to own my own dogs it would have to be Salukis. So I got my first Salukis in the middle of the seventies and since them I have had them all the time.
HOPE WATERS
After the second world war. I married again and my husband said he would like a hound. He said he would like someTthing high on the leg. So we went together lo a dog show and looked at greyhounds, we looked at Afghans. eventually we saw the Salukis it was a big Championship Show. but there were only six Salukis entered. We saw the breed. we fell for it and then shortly afterwards we got our first Saluki. But really what turned us on to the breed was seeing a book which came out just after the war and inside there was a picture of Zebedee el Kizil in it and that started us off.
HERB WELLS
I first got into sighthounds in the mid fifties. It started out coursing wirh Afghans and Greyhounds. Then I got transferred to a US airbase in Merced. where I got involved wiih a group which is now called NOFCA and there I had my first opportunity to see Salukis. I liked the way they could run. They could run longer lhan any other breed, they were more durable than the greyhounds and since that time all I have done is course and show. I do not show anymore. because I can move about with my knees. but I course. I got into the desert bred Salukis and my main interest now is coursing in the Middle Easlern influence. I started wirh Salukis in 1970.
VICKY CLARKE
I started with those big hairy things that Hope didn't want lAfghans]. I acquired my first Afghan in 1972 and avidly did obedience and lure coursing at thal lime and that's when I fell in love with Salukis and I acquired my firstSaluki. I wanted to do the real thing. rather than plastic chasing, so I moved west and started real [hare] coursing.MARIAN ALEXANDER
I became involved in Salukis in 1967. My former husband Charles Alexander. who many of you know was a motor cycle enthusiast and the sport he favoured highest was a sport where you go out in the desert wilh a motor cycle and try ro get from point A to point B as fast as you can through the desert landscape. He had the desire to have a dog that could run along with him. We set about trying to find that animal and consuted a great many reference books on dogs and happened upon the Saluki. a deset dog who could reportably run from A to B , probably with te motor cycle. So we paid a visil to the Srinagar kennels and in July 1967 we acquired our first Saluki.
DARRELL BLACK
My wife. Karen and I had a siamese cat and decided we wanted a dog that had a long sleek silhouette and a cat like personality. So we went to te Golden Gate Kennel Club Show and walked through all the breeds on the benches and we chose a Saluki. Our first Saluki was a Billa de Esta's bitch that we putI into our non Saluki proof yard and she immediately escaped and we chased her for two days. She disappeared and I said: when I catch Ihal dog. its going right back to Nevada and we are through with this. Two days later she scratched the back door and walked in as if she owned lhe place, adorned my knees and I said: I love this breed. This was in 1968
Copyright(c) 1995 Saluki International