The group of dogs, possibly one of the oldest. Nevertheless it has retained its basic features such as: longilíneos members, the elongated snout and the hunter spirit.
Its origins remain around eight thousand years before Christ, in the eastern steppes and spread thanks to the nomadic people. In the third millennium BC, the Egyptian empire invaded Hycsos, carrying dogs.
The Afghan bears that name only a hundred years, since at this time, the first specimens of this breed were brought to England from Afghanistan. Of these exports to Britain are from the only reliable data that we have today.
The people of Afghanistan say their dogs were chosen to be led by Noah in his ark during the flood. It has also indicated that were engraved on the walls of caves in Balkh.
Based on the similarity of the profiles of the greyhounds, we can assume that the Afghan, the saluki greyhound and have a common origin, and that through the centuries developed different types, while retaining a common and essential for survival: visual acuity, which allows them to spot prey at great distances.
The lack of information, both in art and the written word leaves the field open to imagination and speculation.
However, there are some true descriptions;
Unfortunately we did not find paintings or sculptures Afghan robe in antiquity, because most people were nomadic and left messages rarely tangible.
Also in the seventeenth century, Islam spread in Afghanistan, in order to establish a single God, forbade the image making and representation of animals.
-en the fourteenth century there is a description: "You You can be informed that the people of that land beyond the river (Oxus), have a breed of large greyhounds, like a young colt, who drew interest from the Tartars ... When we saw these for the first time, in any case we get one. They saw us from the ramparts of his head of the mountain .... One was the victim of an arrow, and look with astonishment the animal. With exception of muzzle, the hair of those dogs was long and knotted. The hairy ears are falling and abundantly, as in any other animal .... When these dogs are, neither man nor beast can come in front, or so they say. "
-the most accurate illustrations of an Afghan, is from the book of Thomas Broughton and is entitled "Letters written in a Mahrotta Camp, during the year 1809 " . It exhibits a good Afghan robe, with a curved tail, but considerably smaller than today's dogs.
How did the Afghan hound to civilization?
The Afghan people, particularly "sehikhs" triangle-Chitral-Balkh Ghazni jealously guarded this race, which was regarded as one of its national treasures. He had great difficulty in acquiring specimens and the few people who managed to persuade them to surrender one of them were a major obstacle: the stringent rules against exporting, since it was felt that all Afghan hounds belonged to the monarch. British colonialism in the Indian Ocean this dog was going into the West.
In the last years of the nineteenth century, several Afghans were taken to England, but in reality the impact of a large Afghan canine stage England was in 1907, "Zardino" and called on Afghan Captain John Barff, which was exposed in the "Kennel Championship Show, where he won the category of foreign dogs, which was never defeated. It was this issue that served as the model for the breed standard.
Because the First World War, the canine activity stagnated and stopped exports.
Major Amps, after the War, established a Kennel in Afghanistan, which he called "Ghazni", leaving his line in most of the pedigrees of the era.
Subsequently, Major Bell Murray and Jean Manson, come to England with twelve Afghans from the border between Baluchistan and Afghanistan, giving rise to Murray Bell Kennel, with Afghans very different to the already recognized Zardino.
These differences were clashes with the Kennel of the Amps "Ghazni", there were two quite different types. Over the years, the trend that prevailed was that of the Amps.
Crosses made among Afghans of both online, lead us to the Afghan we know today.
In Spain, the first female who was admitted to the Spanish Stud Book (LOE) dates from 1954 and was imported from Britain by the owner of a famous farm in Jaén.
