Afghan Hound

The Afghan Hound is a sighthound from the mountains of Afghanistan that first reached Britain in the early 1900s. Its standard calls it one of the typical sighthounds of the world: a hunter that will chase if it gets the chance, and nowadays also a glamorous show dog.

What do you know about the Afghan?

Another sighthound with long, silky ears, from the Middle East. Which one?
In 1907 an Afghan called Zardin won in spectacular style. At which show?
Its standard gives the Afghan Hound another name. Which?
Another sighthound. Where does this one come from?
Photo: Sabine.schlenkrich, CC BY-SA 3.0

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Where does the Afghan Hound come from?

The mountains of Afghanistan, as its name says. Its breed standard tells the story from the moment it reached the West: the first Afghans arrived in Britain in the early 1900s, and one of them, called Zardin, won in spectacular style at the 1907 Crystal Palace show in London.

The standard also gives it a second name, the Tazi, and says that name reflects its likeness to a Russian breed called the same. It describes a hunter that will chase when given the opportunity, and a dog that must combine strength and dignity with a long, silky coat.

Is the Afghan Hound an ancient breed?

Two large genetic studies, in 2004 and 2010, placed the Afghan Hound in the small group of breeds that branch off earliest in the dog family tree. The third big study, in 2012, did not include it.

That study, by Larson and colleagues, warns against reading early branching as age. It calls these breeds “basal” rather than ancient, because what they share is little recent mixing with other breeds, which the team links to geographic and cultural isolation. In their words, they “only appear so because of their relative isolation”. The oldest dog breeds page has the full table.

How do you recognise an Afghan Hound?

Coat: long and very fine on the ribs, legs and flanks, but short and close along the back of a grown dog. Long hair from the forehead back forms a silky “top-knot”; the face is short-haired.
Head: long, held proudly, with nearly triangular eyes that slant slightly upward. The standard calls the expression Eastern, looking at and through you.
Tail: set low, sparsely feathered, with a ring at the end.
Colour: any colour except merle.
Size: ideal height for males 68 to 74 cm at the shoulder, females 63 to 69 cm.

What are the other sighthounds?

Sighthounds hunt by sight and speed. These are the others in the game, from Britain to Mali; every breed is in the atlas of dog breeds by country.

Facts from the Afghan Hound’s official breed standard (No. 228, 8 September 2026) and Larson G. et al., PNAS, 2012 (full text).

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