Canine speed merchants, the sight hounds - or gazehounds as they are sometimes called - are hunting dogs that locate and follow their prey primarily by using their keen eyesight. Streamlined, lightly framed, but powerful, a sight hound in pursuit of quarry moved rapidly and turns with great flexibility. Many dogs in this group were bred to hunt specific prey.
WHO ARE SIGHT HOUNDS
As shown by archaeological evidence, lean, leggy dogs have been hunting alongside humans for thousands of years, but the early development of modern sight hounds is not entirely clear. It is likely that many crosses involving a diversity of other breeds, including terriers, went into the creation of classic sight hounds such as Greyhound and the Whippet.
Most sight hounds are easily recognizable as a type. Selective breeding has developed characteristics designed to promote speed: strong, supple backs and an athletic build enable the body to stretch out at full gallop; long-standing, elastic limbs, and powerful hind quarters to provide impulsion. Another characteristic is a long, narrow head that either lacks a pronounce stop or, as in the case of the Borzoi, has no stop at all. Typically in sight hound bred to hunt and snap up small prey, the head us carried low when the dog runs at full stretch. Another common feature of sight hounds is a deep chest accommodating a larger than usual heart and allowing for good lung capacity. Breeds that were refined in Africa and the Mediterranean region, such as the Saluki, Italian Greyhound, and Greyhound, have short smooth coats, whereas those developed in harsher climates such as Afghanistan (Afghan hound) Russia (Borzoi), and the northern United Kingdom (Scottish deerhound, Irish wolfhound), bear longer, rougher, weather-resistant coats.
Graceful and aristocratic, sight hounds during their history have been the favoured hunting dogs of the wealthy and well born. Greyhounds, or at least coursing dogs very similar to the modern breed, were kept by pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. For centuries Salukis were, and occasionally still are, used by sheikhs for hunting gazelle in the desert. In pre-Soviet Russia the spectacular Borzoi was the dog of choice for nobility and even royalty, specifically bred for running down and killing wolves.
Today royal sight hounds are used for racing and coursing and are very often kept as pets. Nonaggressive, although sometimes a little aloof toward strangers, sight hounds make fantastic family dogs but need handling with caution when out of doors and may be best exercised on a lead. Their instinct to pursue small animals can be strong enough to override all obedience training. A sight hound chasing after what it perceives to be prey is almost impossible to stop.
