Page 16 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 1 6

So training is more about making desired behaviour and undesired behaviour clear in a
social context from an early age. “Dressage”, which involves teaching tricks like in the
circus, is not part of training, even if the same word is used colloquially, for example in

the German language.

Among the Azawakhs, for example, the young dogs are tied up short with the chickens if
they attack them, which they are not supposed to do. The presence of the chickens and
being prevented from getting to them causes the Azawakh to become accustomed to
other members of the family.

The training of, for example, Harzer Füchse (Harz Foxes), a breed of herding dogs in
Germany, is also carried out in this way. This family affiliation is essential and we will talk
about the social abilities of the dogs in more detail below.

Sloughis like Azawakhs are not sprinters,
they reach the game in one run with top

speeds up to about 50 km/h in the field.
According to Daumas, such a run can
cover a distance of about 15 km! [4].

Azawakhs can run very fast from a
standing position with their short build,
which also predestines them for hunting

birds.

Young Azawakh being accustomed to chickens, being
tethered © Hanß

Henri Lhote has left us a very detailed description of hunting among the Tuareg [5]. In
this book about hunting among the Tuareg, he also describes the dogs in the 1940s, with
the focus for our consideration on hunting with the Azawakh (designation according to
today's understanding, breed according to FCI standard). He distinguishes between the
“Chasse à courre”, i.e. hunting on horseback or with camels, which is comparable to our
fox hunts with packs of hounds, in which Azawakhs can participate, but as a rule no
hounds are present.

“Chasse à la course” is a hunt with dogs, comparable to “coursing”, where ideally two
sighthounds pursue a hare or other game. Henri Lhote lists the game hunted by the
Azawakh: mouflon, gazelle, antelope, ostrich, warthog, porcupine, cheetah,
jackals/Golden wolves and also guinea fowl. However, these hunts take place without
mounted hunters in the Azawakh.