Hi everyone,

What are your thoughts on coat types in Salukis, Tazi, Taigan or Afghans. Can you still get breeders of certain regional types that still have a more or less consistant coat types or are they all too mixed up?

I guess for me I'm thinking of my tri Parti-coloured male Tariq, he is thick coated and the actual hair almost 4 time the length of ameerah and entirely weather resistant he never gets cold or wet through even in heavy rain.
My black and tan bitch Ameerah is extremely short/fine coated is ok when running around but can't really deal with cold and wet together. Farouq the pups is somewhere inbetween. The mother to my SalukiXlurcher (pure Saluki) was coated like Tariq.

Regards

Mark

My Salukis have had quite variable coats. Longer and very soft and silky, shorter and harder, one with a very thin coat you could easily see the skin through. These are dogs from American show lines, though, so 'regional types' doesn't apply. Two of my current Salukis carry very little feathering on the ears, no long hair there at all, and very little on the legs as well. One has a short, very hard coat, the other longer and softer.

My Afghans are extremely variable as well. In the US there tends to be some lines that consistently produce patterned dogs (bare pasterns and hocks, wider saddle down the back) but you do still see patterned dogs coming from heavily coated parents. The genes are there, they just aren't bred for; it can be hard to finish a heavily patterned dog in the show ring. I have two bitches that are very patterned, saddle comes halfway down their sides, bare pasterns and ankles, bare neck. Both these bitches have a correct, silky, easy to care for coat, and both developed their pattern before the first heat. (Typically a bitch will shed out the fluffy puppy coat after her first heat.) The older bitch had her complete coat pattern by the age of six months, the other is just turning a year and has completely shed out her puppy coat. I have another bitch with a very heavy coat, she is two and retains the facial coat that pups have; she sometimes loses it after a heat but it always grows back. She and her brother also do not have a slick saddle, it's covered with slightly longer hair unless I strip it. Because the early imports had basically two coat patterns (heavier coats on the mountain type, lighter on the desert type) and were interbred freely, you get a mix; it can be difficult to predict patterning. Breeding for a very thick, heavy coat has it's drawbacks, including losing the proper Afghan patterning; saddles have to be stripped and I have noticed a lot of show shots lately where the hair on the underside of the neck has been clipped or stripped in order to create a longer, more elegant look. I have noticed that my heavier coated Afghans do not shed in the summer, or very little. The patterned ones do shed some. My halfghans shed almost all their long hair out in the summer and get quite bald, then grow it back in the winter, even some fuzz on the head. It doesn't get really cold here but even my three-quarter Salukis have grown a bit of fuzz on the second thigh and shoulders.

There is a breeder, I think in Germany, who has 'Khalag tazis', that look like the desert form of th early imports. There is a link somewhere around here. They look like my halfghans.

Out of 4 salukis and 4 crosses all have had different coats whether texture length or density :blink: .

It's really interesting all variables across this 'race' of dog yet they are all clearly similar, I was just thinking that many show kennels seem to keep very typey Salukis depending upon what they particularly like (or what they think the judge would like perhaps)? I just thought coat might of been something show kennels or breeding centres like The Saluki Centre pay close attention to.

I have in my head what I think ideal type for my environment and what I will try to aim for in the future, I just thought maybe those who have been involved in these types of dogs for whatever reasons whether showing, competitive coursing, hunting, lure coursing or purely companion might have really been able to 'fix' their ideals?

I have been thinking about this and I realized I have never talked to any breeders of short-coated dogs that breed for a specific coat thickness or texture, as long as the coat is correct for the breed. Then I realized they have no reason to; they don't do anything with their dogs where the coat is that important to the dog's comfort. Soooo, no reason to try to fix a very specific coat type.

I guess even for coursing the coat isn't even so important as you are constantly on the moves between courses.
The problem is that I to a lot of hunting where I'm stood still waiting for the ferrets to flush rabbits out and it is not uncommon to have 20mins of inactivity before rabbits might bolt again.
I heard in kazakhstan that they use terrier or Dachunds to bolts foxes from their holes so they also need coat suited to periods of inactivity in cold weather and their coat appear well suited.
My male Tariq has a really quite long thick coat and it has me wondering what work or environment has originally developed this type of coat, would there originally of been certain areas/environments where all salukis had this type of coat? Turkey, Northern Iran perhaps, ameerahs fine coat, Saudi Arabia?
Has the modern world and the ability to travel far and wide done away with these coat types linked to environment or was there always variance in local populations?