CANADA - EARLY BREED HISTORY
(Lilian Goodman, Our Afghans, 1984)
(With additions from various other authors and AHT archives.
Compiled by Steve Tillotson, September 2013)
(Page 7)



We have arrived at 1944 and this is a suitable place to pause and reflect upon the first several years of the breed's establishment in Canada. Let us first look at the registration figures for Canada and those of the USA for the same time period -

Canadian Registrations 1937 - 1944 Year Litters Registrations 1937 0 3 1938 1 1 1939 1 8 1940 4 10 1941 1 23 1942 6 23 1943 5 17 1944 5 25 Total Registrations 110

USA Registrations 1937 - 1944 Year Litters Registrations 1937 n/a 80 1938 n/a 125 1939 n/a 148 1940 n/a 135 1941 n/a 217 1942 n/a 218 1943 n/a 138 1944 n/a 134 Total Registrations 1195

There is a striking difference between the number of Afghans registered. Of course the two countries are very different. The population of Canada in 1935 was around 11,000.000 and in the USA for the same year it was around 128,000.000. It took the breed about 8 years in Canada to reach coast to coast. This occured more quickly in the USA. Another explanation perhaps is that many unpopulated areas of Canada existed back then, and the breed struggled to estblish in less densly populated areas, sometimes disappearing and returning many years later.

Chaman (UK) breeding dominates Canadian pedigrees for this era. There was a smattering of Laurance Peters Tazi/Saki bloodlines, and a goodly amount of other imports from the USA, however, Chaman is the most influential/dominant bloodline of this era.. The impact of Chaman in this foundation era is enhanced by the low number of registrations. Chaman hounds were also exported to the USA, where, as we see the registrations numbers are tenfold larger, thus the Chaman influence in the USA, whilst important, was less than it was in Canada. Whilst both countries foundations involved a significant contribution from Prides Hill kennels, in Canada, the weight of Chaman, and use of Chaman imports by the two major foundation kennels (El Myia and Ku) effectively diluted the Prides Hill influence.

The upshot of this reference to Chaman is that the breed in Canada developed differently to that of the USA for various reasons. This of course was a benefit for both Canada and the USA. The two countries could exchange bloodlines that were sufficiently different and offered each country something new. This fact did not go un-noticed by the greatest collector of Bloodlines ever - Ms Sunny Shay (Grandeur). She imported (and exported) dogs with Canada very early in her breeding program. Sunny described her homebred Ch Taj Akbaruu Of Grandeur as "the greatest dog she ever saw". Akbaruu was sired by Nehru Of Ku. In this authors (Steve T) opinion, when you look at the photos of Akbaruu one thing stands out - The upright/kingly stance and look of "Chaman" hounds.

The top sire and most prolific dog of this era was Ch Kurram El Myia. The top dam and most productive bitch was Ch Pic Of Chaman. Temperaments were sometimes a concern with some hounds being shy or sharp, sometimes barely approachable. Sunny Shay expressed her concern in this regard about her Canadian imports. Nevertheless she was able to incorporate Canadian dogs into her breeding program whilst maintaining the good temperaments she was renowed for.

Of course, breed history is never about one kennel, we have mentioned several other important kennels already in this article. By way of a example/summary pedigree for the era we chose Bel Belleek Of Skyridge bred by Mr and Mrs Eugene Lynch (Skyridge) a fawn with black mask whelped 26/6/1947. This is an interesting example as the sire (Am Ch Asri-Havid of Five Mile) was imported by Eva Gudgeon (Birchwood, CAN) from the USA, and the sires pedigree coincidentally contains Chaman. The Dam side shows the two major foundation Canadian lines and their lines back to Chaman,.

Pedigree of Bel Belleek Of Skyridge

Parents	Grandparents	Great-Grandparents	Great-Great-Grandparents
Am Ch Asri-Havid of Five Mile	Am Ch Rana of Chaman of Royal Irish	Ch Westmill Bayezid Ansari	Uk Am Int Ch Badshah of Ainsdart
			Elsa of Ghazni
		Safiya	Ch Ashna of Ghazni
			Ch Alfreda
	Am Ch Rudika of Blakeen	Am Ch Rudiki of Prides Hill	Uk Am Int Ch Badshah of Ainsdart
			Am Ch Shireen of Prides Hill
		Lasca Klana	Am Ch Doreborns Dadir
			Simba Too
The Jeep of Ku	Kurram El Myia	Am Ch Tarik of Chaman	Ch Westmill Bayezid Ansari
			Safiya
		Can Ch Manda of Chaman (keschang Pushtikuh)	Westmill Fasano/Tetrarch of Cheltside
			Rasti of Istalif
	Saranga El Myia	Am Ch Tarik of Chaman	Ch Westmill Bayezid Ansari
			Safiya
		Can Ch Manda of Chaman (keschang Pushtikuh)	Westmill Fasano/Tetrarch of Cheltside
			Rasti of Istalif

Things changed quite a lot over the next decade, several important imports arriving in Canada, including hounds from Vdom (Netherlands), Barukhzy (UK, not the Netherland Barukhzy), Horningsea UK, The entire Televee UK kennel migrated to Canada and eventually Televee became integrated within El Myia. Wyndrose USA bringing more Chaman lineage, Patrol's UK, V Djuwain Germany, Carloway UK, Ivardon USA, El Kabul UK. And again, relative to the moderately small number of registrations, some of these imports had a significant impact. We'll cover this next era in a future article

Steve Tillotson, September 2013

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