Saluki

Grooming Tips

Salukis have two types of coats—feathered and smooth—and both are easily groomed with weeklybrushing, although if they have long ear or tail feathering, that may take a bit more attention. Many Saluki owners use a snood to keep ear feathering out of the food bowl (smooth Salukis do not have that problem). Salukis are very clean dogs and known for not having a “doggy” odor.Bathingneed only be done if they get dirty or before a dog show.The rest is basic care. Trim the nails as needed, usually every week or two. Keep the ears clean and dry. Check them weekly for redness or a bad odor that might indicate infection. If the ears look dirty, wipe them out with a cotton ball moistened with a mild pH-balanced cleanser recommended by your veterinarian. Brush the teeth frequently with a vet-approved pet toothpaste for good overall health and fresh breath. Introduce your Saluki puppy to grooming from an early age so that he learns to accept it with little fuss.

Exercise Tips

Because the Saluki is an athletic sighthound, it requires a fair amount of exercise. The best form of exercise for a Saluki is free running in a securely fenced yard. It will need to have at least 400 feet of a straight run for the dog to be able to get to full stride. Owners should be aware that Salukis can jump into the air in order to catch prey so the fence should be at least six feet high.This dog should never be left off leash outside of a fenced enclosure. His keen hunting instincts will kick in once he sees something that he considers to be prey, often the neighbor’s cat. Once he catches it, he will kill it. This is what he was bred to do. Unfortunately, once the Saluki takes off, he is very hard to catch and potentially could be killed by a car.A shorter walk in the morning would be fine, but a longer more interesting one in the afternoon is a must. These dogs also like to be able to roam around a back garden as often as possible so they can really let off steam. However, the fencing has to be extremely secure to keep these high-energy dogs in because if they find a weakness in the fence, they will soon escape out and get into all sorts of trouble and Salukis are known to be very good escape artists.With this said, Saluki puppies should never be over exercised because their joints and bones are still growing. This includes not letting a dog jump up and down from furniture or going up or down the stairs. Too much pressure placed on their joints and spines at an early age could result in a dog developing problems later in their lives.

Feeding Tips

It is essential that the Saluki be fed a high-quality diet of dry food. Although many people feed their dogs only once per day, quite a few Saluki enthusiasts free feed their dogs. This means that they leave dry kibble available for the dog all day. Few Salukis will overeat and become overweight therefore; free feeding should not be a problem. Free feeding can also help to prevent bloat, which has occasionally been a problem in the breed.If you get a Saluki puppy from a breeder, they would give you a feeding schedule and it's important to stick to the same routine, feeding the same puppy food to avoid any tummy upsets. You can change a puppy's diet, but this needs to be done very gradually always making sure they don't develop any digestive upsets and if they do, it's best to put them back on their original diet and to discuss things with the vet before attempting to change it again.Older dogs can be fussy eaters and will usually only eat what they need to often leave food in their bowls when they have had enough. It's best to feed a mature dog twice a day, once in the morning and then again in the evening, making sure it's good quality food that meets all their nutritional requirements. These hounds prefer to have their food bowls placed off the ground which is a funny quirk of many Salukis.Learn about whichhuman foodsare safe for dogs, and which are not. Check with your vet if you have any concerns about your dog’s weight or diet.Clean, fresh water should be available at all times. Saluki appetites can range from the skimpy to the gluttonous. Dogs with the latter will often eat other dogs’ food as well as their own, so they may have to be separated at mealtimes to prevent becoming overweight.

Health Tips

Salukis are fairly healthy dogs that live to about 12 to 14 years of age. The three main breed health concerns are cancer, heart problems and autoimmune disorders. Specific abnormalities in these areas include: 1) Cancer: mammary tumors, hemangiosarcoma, liver, spleen and skin masses, lymphoma, leukemia and squamous cell carcinoma; 2) Cardiac: heart murmurs, congestive heart failure, heart valve disease, arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats), cardiomyopathy, congenital heart defects (ones that the dog is born with), verrucous endocarditis (mitral valve insufficiency); vsdd3) Autoimmune disorders: autoimmune hemolytic anemia, autoimmune thrombocytopenia.Other disorders that Salukis may be predisposed to include Cushing’s disease (hyperadrenocorticism), hypothyroidism, color-dilution alopecia, dermatitis, black hair follicular dysplasia, ceroid lypofuscinosis, seizures, retained testicles, cataracts, deafness and adverse drug reactions.Vigorous running and playing after eating can causebloat, or gastric torsion (which is a life-threatening emergency and needs immediate intervention). Generally, however, Salukis enjoy a healthy, active life from birth to old age.

Trainability

Although the Saluki is an intelligent dog, training can prove to be problematic. Salukis are extremely sensitive so positive training methods are indicated. Raising your voice, yelling or harsh reprimands will ruin any training session with a Saluki. Kind, gentle instruction and plenty of yummy rewards will work wonders while training this breed. It is wise to have all training sessions in an area free from distractions. Once a fuzzy bunny or quick moving squirrel passes by, the Saluki will not be able to resist chasing it down. Thisdoesn’tmean the dog is stupid; it simply has an inherent drive to chase down prey.Owners always need to be conscious of their dog’s hunting instincts and prey drive. If a Saluki sees a squirrel running along a fence-top, it’s a good bet that it will bolt after it, regardless of any prior training or commands from its owner. This isn’t a sign of disobedience or dumbness on the dog’s part; it is just the inherent nature of the breed. Unfortunately, Saluki’s also won’t pay attention to traffic when chasing their prey. The leading cause of death for this breed is not old age or illness; it is being hit by cars.

The ancestry and historical background of most domestic dogs usually can be traced with some degree of accuracy. Not so with the elusive Saluki, whose geographic roots and heritage are shrouded in mystery. This breed’s origin pre-dates recorded history. What is known is that Salukis have lived in the Middle East since antiquity and that they have been treasured by nobility and prized by nomadic hunters for thousands of years. Carvings from the Sumerian empire, estimated to have been created between 7000 and 5000 B.C., have been found in tombs and other excavation cites in the upper Nile region, depicting dogs virtually identical to the modern-day Saluki: Greyhound-like, with softly-feathered ears, legs, and tails.Representations of Saluki-like dogs have been found on sculptures, royal seals, mosaics, pottery and other objects that are millennia old. Well-preserved mummified bodies of these dogs have been found in tombs and other burial sites, reflecting the esteem in which they were held by the nobility of ancient civilizations. The desert tribes that developed this breed were nomads that took the Saluki from the Caspian Sea to the Sahara. There were some natural variations in coat, size, and type of the Salukis, depending upon the local weather, game, and terrain.Salukis first came to the West in 1895 and became successful show dogs with a glamorous reputation. A club for the breed was formed in England in 1923, and the Kennel Club recognized the Saluki that same year.In the United States, the first Saluki arrived by clipper ship from Thebes in 1861, imported by Col. Horace N. Fisher of Boston, but the breed didn’t really become established until the mid-1920s, around the same time it was becoming established in England. The American Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1927, the same year that the Saluki Club of America was founded. The Saluki ranks 115th among the breeds registered by the AKC.