Page 28 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 2 8

To understand more precisely what is at stake here, we must consult an expert. For in

dealing with the subject we learn that here too a certain range of scientific “opinions” are
expressed which cause less clarity than confusion. This may also be due to the fact that
we no longer live very originally in the artificial world of technical progress and thus the
role models are no longer tangible for many people.

But also that the dogs appear before us in a great variety of external appearances. For a
short time now, there have even been dog breeds that are called “designer dogs”. Wishes
are made of these new breeds as to how they should look or whether they are “suitable

for families”, for example. Special characteristics that are considered in isolation come to
the fore in selected breeding. As if animals were products or things of industrial
production that could be produced in a modular way, that could be “bred out”. Or if they
belong to the hunting dogs, they are only bred for special hunting forms. The usual
scientific question schemes are applied, some of which seem questionable and even

pointless.

So there was a serious question about which dog was the most intelligent. The
“intelligence” of the dog describes a very one-sided definition of characteristics. A
Canadian psychologist had taught his dog to assign a hundred objects to concepts.
Certainly, for some this is the fulfilment of their scientific career, but, the question must
be allowed, what does this have to do with the original dog, in our case the Sloughi? I

can't think of anything.

The biologist Dr. Erik Zimen, who has written a book on the dog and one on the wolf,
answers the question of how a pet differs from a wild animal as follows:
“Domestic animal breeds are created ... only through selective breeding by humans

according to certain objectives in the reproductive lines genetically isolated by humans.
There is no natural formation of breeds in the household, at most the splitting up into
different country breeds. ... It was only when people began to breed the different types of
use separately in sexual isolation in the same place, as required, that the first real breeds
of dogs also came into being” [16].

“This distinction between a natural geographical differentiation and an artificial
formation of a breed was also not yet familiar to Theophil Studer ... at the turn of the
century” (into the 20th century).

The modern idea of a “breed” in dogs has therefore only been established for a little over
a hundred years! Thus, a direct comparison between a type of dog, a natural breed or
landrace, as it was common in certain regions for centuries, and a modern “dog breed
according to FCI” or another breed system of the Kennel Clubs in the different countries
is not possible.