dog show

FORM & FUNCTION

/ janpriddyoregon / 1 Comment

When I was showing dogs back in the 1970s, we had an unpopular bloodline, an unpopular “type” of Afghan Hound. Our dogs were descended from early imports out of Afghanistan and specifically from a Dutch kennel, van de Orange Menage of Eta Pauptit who was a horsewoman to start with. She cared about soundness. She insisted that her dogs be functional. Their feet and frame, the musculature and minds of dogs from the vdOM kennel were consistently tough. They were smart during a period when Afghans were being bred to be flashy. Sturdy when during a period where breeders were choosing fine bones and narrow heads, what a local breeder bragged was “swan”-like.

Our dogs were strong.

I’m not certain who this is, he’s not one of our pups but what most of ours looked like at five or six weeks. The black edging mostly grows out, leaving a black-masked red dog. Gary’s dog Manny looked like this. Grown, he had ears red as an Irish Setter. In the afghan I crocheted out of different colors of Afghan hair, it’s easy to pick out Manny’s ears. While a black mask on an otherwise red or gold or cream dog was the typical color of early Afghan Hounds, it wasn’t trendy when I was showing dogs of that color.
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