Azawakh dog breed; developmental history: Welcome to the series of dog breeds presented to you by Kaivalaya’s Ani-Mall. We were in the first part of our series in which we were presenting sight hounds. We have introduced the Azawakh dog breed in our previous post. In this post we will look into historical development of the Azawakh dog breed.
Azawakh Dog Breed region of origin
As stated in my previous post the Azawakh dog breed region is origin is the Azawagh valley. Azawagh valley is the dry basin area of western Africa covering parts of Niger, Mali and Algeria. This is a vast region that was once fed by a tributary of the Niger river known as the Azawagh river. This valley is surrounded by the Hoggar mountains in the north and the Air mountains in the eastern region and an area of shallow valleys in the western limits known as the Adar des Ifoghas.
The reason for illustrating this here is to understand the altered primary job of the This dog breed. As I have stated in my earlier posts the Azawakh dog is not used for game coursing but has been assigned the job of a livestock guardian. Looking at the Azawakh dog breed it is quite difficult to imagine a sight hound doing duties of shepherding. But when we examine the geography of the region from which the dog breed hails, it is quite easily understood why this sight hound thrived in the region where small games are virtually nonexistent.
The valley is a mixture of mountains, flats, shallow rocky lands coupled with dry climatic conditions and high temperature. The mixture of these geographical factors makes it virtually impossible for heavy flock guardian breeds to thrive naturally. Azawakh dog breed being a sight hound with very thin layer of fat and tight skin is ideal for these temperatures. Moreover, long legs, strong leg muscles and light overall structure makes Azawakh dog breed to react quickly on demand.
Ethnic groups associated with Azawakh dog breed.
The breeds have been most closely associated with the Tuareg people but other ethnic groups have also been rearing Azawakh dog breed for a very long time. The primary association of the dog breed with the tuareg people is the reason why sometimes the dog breed is also called Tuareg Sloughi. Apart from Tuareg people Peulh, Bella and Hausa people have also kept and bred the Azawakh dog breed.
Here I would like to conclude this post about the Azawakh dog breed; but the work has not been completed yet. We will meet again with more information on Azawakh Breed. So, it’s a good bye for now. If you like our work at; Kaivalaya’s Ani-Mall please like and subscribe our blog. We are also open to any suggestion from our readers to improve our works. Thank you so much for visiting Kaivalaya’s Ani-Mall.
Image Source: Azawakh African hound
