Sahel Hound » dog

Preposterous

Brian Reiter — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:21:06 +0000

Tawzalt just walked casually into my office, stretched and curled up on top of Azelouan.

We had a big snow

Brian Reiter — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:19:55 +0000

Azelouan was curious.

Tawzalt was horrified.

Azelouan Enjoys and Afternoon Out

Brian Reiter — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:04:32 +0000

Tawzalt is in season and is at her peak of receptivity. It is tough for Zel to remain chaste and they are both wound a little tight. We took took the girls for a picnic and to get some new clothes for fall and brought Zel along and left Tawzalt to rest at home.

Zel was very happy to get some time out in the country side.

Cassandra and her Puppy

Brian Reiter — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:17:57 +0000

This photo of Cassandra and Tawzalt is from last July 4th. Cassandra loves Tawzalt.

Cassandra with puppy Tawzalt

Backyard Shenanigans

Brian Reiter — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:18:31 +0000

Azelouan’s new game is jumping the pile of wood that I have left over after building a new fence. The wood pile is over 8 feet long and 2 feet high. He easily clears it every time.

On the way out.

The return journey.

Sketch

Brian Reiter — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:00:49 +0000

This morning I felt inspired to do some sketches of Azawakh. I started with standing poses and then did this running version. I think the least satisfactory parts are the shape of the scapula and the head.

Azawakh Running Sketch, extension phase

It’s nap time

Brian Reiter — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:02:38 +0000

Theodora and Tawzalt

Cassandra and Tawzalt

Unfortunately, this lasted about 10 minutes. I should never have let the girls eat chocolate cake at the coffee shop.

“Help” with the snow removal

Brian Reiter — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:46:38 +0000

We had a pretty big snow storm last night, about 6 or 7 inches or hock-deep on an azawakh. The dogs are a little ambivalent about the stuff. They have fun with it until they start to get really cold. For Tawzalt, this is her first experience with proper fluffy snow that hasn’t been adulterated by a nasty skin of ice caused by freezing rain.

They were very helpful at un-shoveling the snow as I cleared it.

Tawzalt is starting to feel the cold after some crazed digging

What is this crazy stuff?

Snow Digger

Azeloan with his snow ball

Havoc wreaked, it's quittin' time.

Our Sophie

Brian Reiter — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:39:04 +0000

In 1996 just outside of a small West African village my wife (though at the time we were just dating), Christie, recovered a tiny, wailing puppy in the Bush. The puppy was alone without littermates and with no bitch in sight. We later learned that when a bitch has an undesirable litter of puppies one way of getting rid of the problem was to have boys spread the puppies out into the bush as far apart as possible in hopes that they will die before the bitch finds them. In general this was a practice of people who considered the dogs to be a sort of large rat in the first place and never wanted the bitch hanging around in the first place. Among the Mandinka people with whom we lived in that particular corner of Africa, dogs are absolute pariahs who survive on the food waste and trash that is discarded over the compound wall.

Sophie from infant to adult

The puppy was so tiny that her eyes were not yet open. It was much too young to have been weaned. We didn’t have anything like bottles or formula to nurse this dog. Christie bought a can of condensed milk at the little village store and dribbled it into the puppy’s mouth with her finger. I found out about the new little family member by bush letter, which is to say that Christie wrote me a letter and gave it to a passing car headed in my direction and which was eventually delivered to me. At the time I was working a couple of hundred miles away. When I read the letter I as completely stunned. I couldn’t imagine how we could possibly take care of a tiny puppy, but we did and I managed to overfeed her so that she was fat. When it was time for us to return to the USA we brought her with us.

Postscript
A friend asked me what was wrong with her tail because it looks like it is chopped off in the top photo and the other two photos don’t show it. The answer is nothing was wrong with it. She had a normal tail. The top picture is just framed awkwardly and the tail is hidden rather abruptly by a tree stump that is barely visible at the edge of the picture.

West African Working Bush Dog

Brian Reiter — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:06:36 +0000

These are photographs of photographs I took in 1997 in The Gambia. The dog is one of three that serve as guardians for a beautiful herd of Fulani cattle. The structural conformation is very much like an Azawakh but many of the “bush dogs” in that area tend to be quite rustic and unrefined. Specimens with one or both ears erect were not uncommon, tails tendto be thick-ish and the hair was usually somewhat longer than is typical of Azawakh. The temperament is the same as typical of Azawakh. I believe these dogs and Azawakh are very closely related.

It was common practice for male working dogs to have cropped ears. I’m not sure if the primary purpose was to proactively prevent torn ears or to identify the dog as owned by someone (and therefore not to be killed).

West African bush dog protecting his cows

After thieves, the biggest risk to cattle might have been hyenas. The bush dogs that guard herds were expected to keep hyenas at bay.

West African Hyenas, the enemy of the bush dog