Page 133 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

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The modern dog breeds only emerged about 150 years ago, starting in England. The first
umbrella organisation, the Kennel Club, was founded in 1873. Only breeders who joined
this umbrella organisation were recognised and entered in the stud book. In the
beginning, the focus was not only on the beauty of the hunting dog breeds but also on
their suitability for work.

As we have already seen above with Mendel and Johannsen from the early 20th century

onward, the “phenotype” shapes the appearance of a dog breed bred according to the
standard. It refers not only to morphological, but also to physiological characteristics
and, if necessary, to behavioural traits. However, it must be said that morphological
traits play a major role in the selection of the breed.

If the ear question becomes more important in Sloughi than the consideration of his
social characteristics, the genetic range for the preservation of the Sloughi breed
according to standard will no longer be guaranteed. Let us remember Boldareff, who
considered the different types in the Borzoi as a necessary basis for the preservation of
the Borzoi breed. This is more in line with the canon of natural breeds or landraces than
with standard breeds.

Kurt Kotrschal also reports on the large genetic study of the dog breeds that Heidi Parker
and her colleagues made in 2004 [81]. “According to this study, the dogs living today fall
into four relatively clear groups: firstly, the wolf-like dogs, which include huskies and
malamutes, Spitz and Basenjes, but also sighthounds such as Afghans and Sloughis. This

group is genetically most closely related to wolves and most differentiated within the group.
... Two other groups reflect the ancient cooperation between humans and dogs: the herding
dogs ... and thirdly the Molossians” [82].

Kurt Kotrschal also speaks of a selection. But whether this was done by humans or was
more or less influenced by humans remains unclear. Kurt Kotrschal reports on the

Belyaev experiment. In this experiment, silver foxes were selected for tameness at a
fur farm in Russia. “After more than 30 generations, the foxes from the tameness line
showed surprising changes: They were not only affectionate towards humans like nice little
dogs. They had also changed physically. There were now small and large, long and short-

nosed, spotted or solid coloured, floppy and prick-eared foxes. So simply by selecting for a
tame nature, the animals developed similarly diverse differences to their ancestral form as
today's dogs do to wolves” [83].