Additonal Breeds Starting
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COUNTRY:
South Africa
WEIGHT:
65-75 pounds
HEIGHT:
24-27 inches
COAT:
Short, dense, sleek and glossy
COLOR:
Light to red wheaten, a little white on toes
and chest allowed
OTHER
NAMES: African Lion Hound
REGISTRY:
FCI, AKC, TKC, CKC
GROUP:
Southern
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This breed is one of those conglomerates that makes it hard to classify.
Dutch, German and Huguenot immigrants came to South Africa in the 16th and
17th centuries to start new lives.
With them came
their mastiffs (like the Great Dane), scenthounds and other dogs. The
Hottentots (or Khoikoi, the name preferred by anthropologists) were a
tribe of this area who had, over the previous thousand years, migrated
from northern Africa. With them came dogs of the sighthound type that
had a distinctive ridge of hair growing the opposite way down their backs.
Anthropologists have placed similar dogs bearing a ridge and of a fiercely
loyal type in South Africa prior to 1505.
The Phu Quoc
Dog, from its namesake island near Thailand, was said to be pariah/hound
type. This dog, now probably extinct, is the only other purebred to bear
the distinctive ridge. The Phu Quoc could have been brought to Africa
aboard Phoenician ships and passed its trait to African dogs.
The European
emigrants came to be known as Boers, who were mostly farmers. They needed
large, brave dogs which would protect their families and stock from wild
animals and marauders, and could also be used for hunting deer and feather.
Of necessity, the breed had to be able to withstand the harsh climate,
as well as the deadly tropical diseases and parasites in the African veldt,
or grassland.
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