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Lyn
Schelling-Watson, Keilor
Australia. March 2000
The mystery of the origin of the Afghan Hound is a truly fascinating one. Many before me have attempted to unravel the canine threads which lead back beyond the closing of the "stud book" as we know it- through medieval times, - through the time of Christ and before, and even further yet, via the myths surrounding the last great flood, 6,500 years ago, and those glaciations and floods which preceded. Written histories commence as ancient rock art, in Egyptian relics, Mayan art forms. Statuary dates back beyond remembered time. Best of all clues are the fossilised bone formations which continually come to light. Ever more sophisticated carbon dating methods are revealing pieces of the puzzle in a more tangible way. Over
the past ten years I have become very involved with Australia's Dingo. Due to
the political necessity of our governments to identify whether the wild dog killing
stock "out there" is one which may be destroyed or one which belongs to the protected
family, the floodgates of research have been opened. Significant grants have been
made towards specific DNA studies. Ancient pelts, and archaeological remains have
been used as the starting point for Dingo DNA, and many of the living dingoes
tested are proving to be directly descended and without modern domestic dog influence
of any kind. The sharing of research across the Pacific is paying huge dividends
in contributing to the world's store of knowledge about dogs everywhere.
The once accepted scientific and lay belief that the Basenji of Africa and the Dingo of Australia were closely related might now almost be discounted. The DNA strands of the two breeds show very little close relationship at all. Both are "bark-less", both are annual breeders, both retain feral natures and hooded ears- but there our similarities end. Of the 110 tests which are run on each tissue sample only around 15% have shown consistencies. When European Wolf DNA strands are compared with the Dingo we are now informed that the more ancient of the two is the Dingo. Do we still accept that all of our domestic dogs stem from the grey wolf alone? Even when the canine genome map is complete, it will take special efforts to unravel this mystery. There are eminent researchers who hypothesise that in fact all wolves spread across the earth from the land mass now known as Australia, in company with man. Canis lupus dingo has been in Australia for at least 4500 years. As older samples are being dated this period is being extended. But for our purposes, 4,500 years is more than enough to work with. It follows the last known ice-melt or great flood. The Dingo could only have arrived here when the sea level was lower, the islands to our north closer together, and the sea voyage possible in the craft of the day. The last flood stopped his migration to Tasmania, now an island, once joined to the mainland, thus allowing the Thylacine, Marsupial "wolf" which he displaced, a short lived escape from his inevitable evolutionary demise. Dingo was the only true canid and, aside from man one of few mammals in the vast continent of Terra Australis. Until the arrival of white man only 200 odd years ago, he remained the purest of all dogs on earth. Because he had evolved to survive, even thrive, cut off in remote and unhospitable territory, he has remained essentially unchanged. The same did not occur for most of the remainder of the world's dogs. Dingo was as "domesticated" as the White Footed Wolf of Asia - Canis lupus pallipes would ever have been - which is probably never greatly so. Some individuals had clearly stepped over the threshold of man, not so much as a companion, but as a semi useful tool for cleaning up, warming, giving warning of strangers or storms, acting as compass and probably as a pot filler from time to time. Today he could just as easily fall into that role. The dingo does still not bark, it only howls. A loosely similar tale unfolds in thebackground of the Coyote of the Americas.
I do it because I believe strongly that this ancient canine shares a host of DNA strands with our Afghan. In my observations of behaviour I note many quirks which both breeds share and which I have not observed in other domestic breeds. I do claim lifetime experience through a range of breeds, and hence I believe I have become a fairly reliable observer. Canis lupus pallipes is the most likely shared ancestor. If he is the "Tengger" Dog of Java", then he is carbon dated around 10,000 years old and the oldest archeologically proven canine. The flood which isolated Australia is probably the same polar melt which figures in the dimly remembered stories of Noah and his Ark, however that is recent history in the development of the wild dogs of the world and later the domestic dog as we know it. The flood led to the isolation of pockets of all forms of life. It probably led to the development of human races, as well as birds, and to all of the animal kingdom as we know it in this epoch. All of us present have probably read in our breed history books the fancied tale that indeed the Afghan Hound was Noah's chosen canine companion on the Ark. This, of course, may have been the best conveyance of the allegory that the dog has been known for as long as legends have been told. Dogs certainly were commonly utilised as ship's cleaners. Perhaps the Australian Aboriginal was merely another "Noah". Interestingly, a part of aboriginal dreaming portrays the dingo as mans alternate form. Cave paintings from northern Australia and more recently discovered cave paintings in northern Thailand depicting dogs bear amazing similarities. Dating these precisely is difficult; owing to the seeping silica that has over the aeons both preserved and obscured many of them. That dog and man have co-existed in these areas of the world for a very long time is, however quite clear. Let's get back to the flood, and to the last cataclysmic isolation of life forms. Those human beings who somehow survived and inhabited the polar regions of those land masses we know of today as America, Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, requiring their foraging quadrupeds to survive, offer other clues. Without dogs for mobility and without reindeer as sustenance for both, man would perish. He was forced to follow the foraging animals wherever grass grew and therefore could not be anything but nomadic. The seasons and the grass ruled all lives. The wolf/dogs that could survive along with them developed a very distinctive type. All of them had thick skins and thick pellage. The Wolf was seen as an object of worship by the Nordic races and worshipped for his guile, bravery, and ability to survive unaided and resilient in inhospitable environment. Similar wolf worship occurred in North American indigenous culture. Much later the pre Romans would record a wolf cult. Only in the more temperate, and even equatorial regions, where grass and low tree fodder could be more permanently sustained could civilisation and fixed abodes become established. Where snow covered the ground for much of the year, the ungulates could not remain, and until man discovered areas where he could confine and feed a herd of animals year round, he simply could not stop his wanderings. All of these nomadic dogs could only have survived with very regular annual breeding cycles.
It would be at the point of wild ungulate confinement by man that the differentiation between harmless and harmful wolves would become essential. The true wild wolf -during business hours -is always prick eared (being so from birth), carries his tail pointed downward, howls, is solid coloured, and breeds in tune with annual natural cycles. Lop
ears would certainly have been one of the first of nature's mutations to be come
useful to the camp/herd dogs, and thereby perpetuated. Clearly the lop eared animal
possesses a countenance of docility. Selection, whether deliberate or naturally
occurring began as a survival trait. I list here some major naturally occurring
gene mutations that have, by their dominant nature, served to separate the domestic
dog from the wolf; all of them are neotenic or infantile traits, which are transient
in true wild dogs. Such mutations appear spontaneously at the rate of 1/10,000
births. (Many primitive tribes still hack the ear leathers and tails from owned
dogs).
As various pockets of surviving Nordic tribes wandered further south they would be conquering new frontiers, seeing all manner of unfamiliar animal life as the equator was approached In contemplating the life of those more fortunately cut off in temperate zones we see a different picture. China, land of silk, the Islands of Japan, still isolated by sea. India and the rest of Asia had other natural barriers to travel. The vast deserts and wastelands, and virtually impassable mountain ranges, were subject to constant volcanic upheaval and earthquakes. Yet, incredibly, sophisticated societies must have existed or survived the great flood possibly intact in some areas. Civilisation, clearly, could only happen where sweet water and grasslands were permanent and the climate sufficiently temperate. It could only spread with the aid of animal transport and the wheel. There are nine species of canine recognised. All of them can and some do interbreed. The canines of Asia seem to be of two distinct types, outside of the grey wolf canis lupus lupus of the north and the small golden coloured and white-footed wolf of the south, -canis lupus pallipes, there existed a third alpine wolf. The mutated giant Tibetan Wolf, canis lupus laniger, black and tan, acromegalic, probably the forebear of the modern Tibetan Mastiff. From this cross probably sprang the black, the bi-colour, merle and the brindle. It is my view that he is the link in our chain to the Afghan Hound, and most of the domestic breeds we see today. Without him all dogs would possibly still look much like wolves. Radiation may well have played an additional part in the mutant dwarfing gene, which led to those forebears of the Pekingese, ShiTzu and Bulldog types. Since none of the small naturally deformed canids could survive a wild existence, man too has clearly played his selective part, - more probably woman, and later, priests and eunuchs, by unwitting selection of the neotenic or infantile looking specimens, or those which were reminiscent miniatures of revered beasts such as the lion. The largest were captured and turned into fearsome Mollossian war animals and pack dogs. The medium sized mutants became the forebears of the Tibetan Terrier and the Chow Chow. The smallest useful as foot-warmers, flea traps and child substitutes. To the west and south of those impassable Himalayan ranges lay the area known as the cradle of civilisation. Indeed, the very area where Noah's Ark is said to rest. To its south lies the Nile valley and Egypt, also home to the first documented canine enclave, Cynocephalus. Here the locally occurring jackal/wolf was deified, and depicted as smooth coated and black. Worshipped no doubt because he took on the task of cleaning up dead flesh of all kinds.
The Jackal is a distantly related canine to the wolf - but not a wolf. Fertile offspring does arise from cross matings. He was the canid which survived in an environment where live game was faster and smaller. He has the narrow dolicocephalic head we now see in our sighthounds, the long flexible loin, and a 59-day gestation. That slight difference in chromosomes, no doubt led to all sorts of anomalies, more especially in skull and dentition formation, and in the dorsal area, where wolf and jackal differ, and probably also led to the variations in mating cycles, and possibly the solid black colour. Not so very far removed from the jackal of the south lived the long legged, smooth, single coated, squarish wolf of Arabia, or Canis lupus arabs, sometimes called the greyhound wolf - the fourth wolf. Clearly, he too, played a role in the origins of today's world population of canines, especially the gazehounds. Little
wonder, then that as explorers from unknown parts and their entourage of guard
and herding canines met with their long isolated counterparts that strange couplings
took place. Giant boned black and tan alpine mastiff wolves bred with yellow canis
pallipes from the Indian lowlands. As the DNA of wolves and jackal combined, all
manner of mutant offspring arose. Premolars failed to appear, brachycephalic heads
appeared, annual-breeding seasons became unnecessary assisted by the constant
availability of food, close to human habitation. Colours and coat patterns never
seen before arose, and man, ever the collector of the weird and wonderful saw
to it that these rarities were perpetuated. Clearly where mutations were useful
for survival under certain environmental conditions, type formations would be
set firm, due to isolation and natural closure of the local gene pool.
The
city of Cynocephalus was interesting. The Egyptians were prodigious tenders of
animals. They collected herded and bred all manner of cattle, sheep, goats, horses,
camels and dogs. They traded in them and prospered, controlling and exploiting
the grasslands, even stockpiling grain. They were the first to discover that genes
could be manipulated and melded, especially in their dogs. Clearly they were somewhat
obsessed by the tight snapped over and curled tail and patched white colours seen
only in the rarest of dogs from the polar north. Surviving artwork shows that
they managed to breed this trademark tail onto almost every kind of dog, from
the little jackal of the south, forebear of today's Basenji and Saluki, to the
harlequin coloured, huge boned dane-like creatures which appear in artistic chronicles.
The Egyptians revelled in mixing and matching their traded Asian wolves, the giant
mollossian war dogs from the north east, and the very rare polar spitz-wolves
from the far north, with their own familiar fleet footed, single coated jackal/wolves.
Indeed the Egyptians did a fine trade in exotic humans and animals, but no prized animal left there entire. Crafty business sense ensured that the customer must always come back. The gene bank of the world's finest animals belonged to the Pharaohs. This monopoly soon brought about covetousness followed by theft, retaliation then, war. A succession of explorers and /conquerors passed through the trade routes, over the mountain passes to the north and to the east, and via the seas. New religions and superstitious beliefs soon outstripped trade, as a reason for war, all of which saw animals treated according to the prevailing creed. In so doing the marauders left devastation, plagues, and each time yet another infusion of outcrossed canine and human genes in their wake. The chasm which yawns ever wider between the dog of civilisation and that of the proud, remote wild dog is criss-crossed now and then by the fringe dwelling pariah. Totally dependent dogs survived in their own way in man's domain, passing their genes down the centuries, useful for their speed, their herding, draughting ability, companionability or just their beauty. These dogs will always be the subject of trade. Their continued survival is as fragile as that of their wild cousins, who choose to remain remote. In between are the semi-domesticated pariahs - unowned, where occasional opportunity permits including their genetic material in the get of the lap dogs, and perhaps, rarely, even that of the wild dogs. The world needs them all for various reasons. They are doing a fine job of work as companions, as cleaners, and as controllers of rodents and disease. Their place in the ecology of the earth is assured. The past three hundred years have merely seen a replay of the incursions and expeditions of Hannibal, Alexander the Great, Marco Polo and Ivan the Terrible. Only the players change. The British, the Dutch, the French, Spanish and Portuguese have occupied territories in the near and far east, where trade in animals, commodities and spices required protection. The discovery in the fourteenth century that the world was round led to an ever further, ever faster exchange of genetic material.
Of all of the latter day conquerors, the British specialised in dog dealing. Their love for dogs and their zeal in collecting all manner of exotic canine flesh led to fierce competition in the market. Each returning Army officer brought home to mother England a cache of spoils. Each one wove ever grander tales around their living loot, postulating the hype to extract from the society market the greatest sum of pounds, or merely to proclaim their return and to bask in the retelling of their exploits abroad, not to mention the acquaintanceship of exotic royal personages. There were a number of well-known society collectors of dogs. Among them one Major Taunton, who was a regular exhibitor in the Foreign Dog Classes at the Crystal Palace shows around the turn of the twentieth century. I have found this gentleman documented as the owner of Afghan Hounds, Afghan Sheepdogs, and Australian Dingoes, among a long list of breeds. Of course the more rare and unusual the animal the more attention surrounded it. The Afghan Hound was a winner. So, too was the rare Tibetan Mastiff. Both these breeds are the product of similar historic and geographic backgrounds. Both lack any signs of their dams being visited by the lowly variegated pariah dog, being solid coloured. Likenesses of dogs imported to Britain from the remote areas north of India, and the forbidden regions of Tibet during the period 1835 to 1935 at least figure in woodcuts and etchings, so we are able to visually link them with what we see today. Tales of remarkable guarding prowess, and hunting feats accompany them, but the cold truth cannot be ignored - that in England these dogs were valued entirely for their exotic appearance and the curious mystique that surrounded them. They were needed for nothing other than winning of prizes, and parading before an awed public at every possible opportunity in order to enhance the status of their owners. The running battle between Major Bell-Murray and Mrs. Amps were tasty morsels in doggy press of the day - each claiming the "true" Afghan and each outdoing the other on the origins of their charges. Later, others would enter the fray which spread over all of Europe, and with the advent of more recent wars - to America. In truth all indeed had tapped into the homogenous products of the Afghanistan and north Indian environment - whether the desert or the mountains. These dogs were christened "Afghan Hounds". Afghan Hound history from these times to the present is well documented in some wonderfully researched works by Conni Miller and Ed Gilbert, by Charles Harrison, by Margaret Niblock, Joan Brearly and others. I am sure that all of you have read them.
The original foundation stock which somehow found its way into the newly formed Kennel Clubs stud books numbered some two score Afghan hounds. That is the founding population and it represents the sum total of the genetic material available to the world's early breeders of Afghan Hounds. The same range of genes is available now. No more - no less. Since the 1950's we are aware of a handful of later arrivals to England, USA and other European countries direct from Afghanistan, yet, sadly, few were admitted legitimately to the gene pool via the stud books, which had been closed some decades previously, around 1927. The range of physical characteristics was extensive. Some exhibited a definite southern wolf skull, broader at the zygoma and with slanting, dingo like eye placement, coupled with huge mastiff like feet and bone. Others were far more reminiscent of the jackal- like narrower skull type and finer longer limbs. Body type ranged from almost broad fronted to very narrow and dingo like. All had lop ears, and the most sported the peculiar smooth coat on the dorsal region extending to a somewhat ridiculous ringed tail. Prominent on this tail was the triangular vestigial scent gland of the Asian wolf. The long silky coat and topknot of the Tibetan wolf clung to all of them in varying degrees. There were clear leanings to all four of the ancient wolf types behind them. Colours ranged from solid black, brindle, to gold with and without mask. Even the grizzled widows peak pattern appears, reminiscent of the black backed and golden jackal behind the saluki. Some could have gone straight into the showring today as Salukis.
The Afghan Hound of his native country was not coddled, compounded or fed regular nourishing meals. Most hunted and scavenged their own living, and whilst this hardship seems even cruel to us here, this did ensure that only the fittest survived. Very little human selection other than useful abilities would have impacted on the semi-feral Afghan Hound, which left his native country to continue his family fortunes as a glamour figure. With only a handful of foundation animals and the closure of the pool to fresh influx of strong feral native stock, to have survived a century in this way is remarkable. To me it proves that the breed is indeed one of real antiquity and inherent genetic strength. Most of us are aware of the feral nature of the Afghan intact in today's examples!
It is my view that the future must recognise the dominant characteristics which will preserve the constitutional well being of this breed. What animals would nature allow to produce the next generation? Not those unable to perform the natural mating act. Not those females unable to normally whelp and rear a healthy family of puppies, not those males submissive of temperament, and not those who have no instinct to chase. Not those with skulls bred so narrow as to affect the proud and crafty function of the organs it encases, not those with missing teeth, not those with shortened sternum bones. Not those with weakness of heart, nor lameness of structure, brought about by imbalances It is human to crave or collect the unusual, thereby interfering with the innate nature of and attempting to domesticate each animal we touch. The next step seems to be the urge to write standards for the physical animal to conform to. Standards are not entirely bad things. Some of the demands given priority by judges and by unwitting breeders are very bad things, in ignorance of true breed survival essence. In assuming custody over my dingoes I have had to come to terms with the fact that a pure dingo is a dingo, whether he is a carbon copy of other dingoes or not. If he can do the things dingoes must do, even with a golden eye, or with turned out feet, with joyful or with surly demeanour, then he remains a typical dingo. Rescuing our dingo from total annihilation meant having him recognised as a "pure breed" by the Australian Government differentiated from a wild dog. This meant getting the Australian National Kennel Council to do it first. It meant that a standard had to be devised. As author of that dingo standard, was I to demand a dark eye, a dead straight stance? How to capture this ancient wonder of nature in words? Demanding that this creature fit tightly and neatly within the confines of human words could be dangerous to his future. Putting that future in the interpretation and the hands of dog judges filled me with horror. I have a different view of all breeds now and of all standards. I always had differing views of judges. They are human, with human failings. Much as we like to meddle with nature's tools, we are not God. The solution to this dilemma was to ban competitive exhibition of the dingo, in order to preserve him as nature intends he should be.
Here, I digress a little, to share with you some more of my interesting dingo researches which may well be applied in our study of the Afghan Hound. Morphologists spend much time studying bony remains, and in particular skull formation and dentition. It is here that clues to the relationship of species and the degree of domestication may be found, particularly in the placement, size and number of teeth, the angles of the skull and foreface, and the area encasing the brain, and eardrums. A series of measurements have been documented which can actually lead to us telling whether we have a dingo or a dog skull. As our dingoes pass on their skulls are submitted for testing. This, plus the new DNA testing is giving us huge confidence in preserving our little Aussie battlers. Never yet have we recorded a dingo that did NOT appear to be born with a full set of 42 teeth, and a perfect scissor bite. Illustrations of the differences between domesticated and wild canid skulls are included. Note the skull of the Pekingese superimposed over that of the wolf. This clearly illustrates the degree of degeneration brought about by extreme reliance on another species to survive. Note also the strength given to the skull by the angled zygoma. The early Afghans of my experience, in the '60's all exhibited a markedly stronger jaw mechanism than we generally see today, in this area. The major difference between the original British and American standards is precisely this point. Selection for flattened cheekbones and narrow skulls, while leading to a viewpoint of "elegance", has had a marked effect on the skull formation, which may not, in reality, be a healthy drift. Compare with the most efficient jaw in nature - that of the cat, which has an almost equilaterally shaped lower jaw
The rush by exhibitors to have something different and recognisable has led the Afghan gene pool in a sorry chase, at times holding up as "rare" and" special" the result of double recessive dilute breedings, while consigning to the desexing table the common golds or blacks; the very animals which nature would select for her next generation. The pendulum swings in ever shortening arcs for the Afghan of the western studbooks.
In the seventies movement of dogs and dog judges about the world and exchange of bloodlines was difficult. With the eighties came movement of stock and communications by air, in the nineties artificial breeding techniques came to the fore, where the stock did not have to move, merely the genetic material. Afghan breeders have been among the first to utilise these methods. The world is shrinking so quickly that closely related animals are having excessive impact on many parts of it simultaneously. There are no more isolated "pockets" of unrelated strains left with which to replenish lost strengths. Consequently the breed will be in huge trouble if one of these widely used bloodlines manifests a seriously defective condition. In theory we are working with exactly the same range of genes that those first named Afghan Hounds on our pedigrees left us. No more and no less. So long as the entire range remains available, and we do not fall into the trap of discarding dominant genetic material, either by foolishly chasing extreme recessive fads or by nurturing weak animals which would not stand a fair chance of surviving without constant intensive care, the future is viable. Cryogenics and the new science of cloning tempt the breeder of the future. In Melbourne already research on in vitro fertilised ova is proceeding at a giddy rate with canine material. What a long way the pastime of tradition and preservation has come. Who will pass judgement on Afghan Hound genes? What criteria will be set? Has art become science?
Yet another war has left Afghanistan in tatters. Just how resilient is the ancient hound of this hard environment? Have the very reasons for his existence vanished? Have evolution, revolution, religious custom, and trade taken a final toll, or has inaccessible remoteness preserved this special combination of nature's pool of genes for our descendants to enjoy as we have done? If it were for me I would be making a strong case for the Kennel Clubs to re-open their studbooks to fresh imports from the country of origin- if such a creature exists and could be obtained. I believe we must go back to the roots for a fresh infusion of strength. Perhaps there is no longer a need in his homeland for the primitive dog of the Himalayas with the weird trademark of smooth hair along his dorsal area. If that is so then there is a heavier burden upon the shoulders of the breeders of Afghans today. I urge all of you, then, to consider his welfare and constitution before that of your superficial whims when next you judge, or plan to breed, by whatever technique you choose.
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racing
the origins of the domestic dog from before the last polar melt and great flood
via the rise of civilisations, religions, customs, and technologies.
The journey takes us back and forth
through the Himalayas- from the tundra to the great deserts of the earth, - north
and south of the equator, - east and west of Mecca…. down the centuries
to the DNA labs of the third millenium.
