Page 127 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

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When we describe dogs as social beings, this must be seen in relation to their own family.
Dogs, people or other animals that a dog does not know because it comes from a different
family are first strangers and the dog is in a state of tension that it avoids rather than
seeks. A dog is not sociable, it first looks at strange individuals from a distance.

The trait of the Sloughi to attach himself to only one or two persons thus finds its origin
in the nomadic way of life. This relationship is even stronger in the Azawakh, which only

recognises one person as a reference person. In the Sloughi, however, as in the Azawakh,
this trust is not given. The Sloughi and the Azawakh first checks with whom he is dealing
with as soon as he has reached a certain age. The easiest time to adopt is when the
Sloughi or Azawakh are still puppies.

The Sloughi, however, lives with nomads (e.g. Ouled Nail) as well as with semi-nomadic
Berbers or with sedentary people in North Africa. As a rule, one can therefore assume a
deliberate mating by humans, unlike in the case of the Azawakhs of the Tuareg. In the
case of the Azawakhs, however, the special situation is that other dogs obviously cannot
withstand the environment of the Sahara and therefore a mixture of this type of dog with
others can only occur in the peripheral areas near the settlements in the south of the
Sahel.

But in the Sloughi, selective mating will traditionally mean that wide encounters will take
place and thus a broader basis for a genetically wide range is possible. Targeted mating,
however, will not have pedigrees in mind, as would be the case with the western Kennel
Clubs, but will have only the suitability of the type and its promising traits in mind.

Azawakh in Mali © Hanß