Karen has a new photo essay with the new Taigan puppy (Hussar) playing with Uhlan (our older Tazy). The Central Asian sighthounds are fierce critters.

Tazys come from Kazakhstan. Taigans from Kyrgyzstan. Hussar is from the first litter of Taigans born in North America.

————————————

Steve Bodio’s tazy (Oriental greyhound) and Harris Hawk (Ataika & Mima) deer watch together out the window of a house while visiting in Wyoming.

They want that deer!

From Querencia.

photo: Karen L. Myers

click on photo to link to photo essay

Our 11-week-old puppy, Uhlan, is a Tazy, whose mother is from Kazakhstan and whose father was bred in St. Petersburg, one generation removed from Kazakhstan.

Tazy is just the preferred name in Kazakhstan for the local version of Saluki, known earlier in the West as the Persian Greyhound.

Tribal dogs like ours are prized by sighthound enthusiasts for their strong natural hunting instincts. Karen’s photos of Uhlan in action demonstrate that this puppy may be a little too keen.

7-week-old Tazy puppy Uhlan

I was away from the keyboard yesterday, driving nearly 200 miles each way to pick up a seven-week-old puppy.

Last month, the renowned Saluki authority Gail Goodman sent me an email telling me that a retired Russian zoologist (living very near me — only about 200 miles away!) had just bred a litter of the rare Kazakh Tazys, which the serious connoisseurs of aboriginal coursing dogs, people like Gail herself and Steve Bodio, particularly admire for their hunting instinct and drive.

The fact that I have no experience in coursing and live in the East where we lack the kind of open spaces suitable for sighthounds easily found in New Mexico did not deter my friends from getting behind the idea that I needed to own one of these.

Tazy (or Tazi) is just another Asian term for the breed originally referred to in the West as the Persian Greyhound, but these days known as the Saluki (or Saluqi).

Naturally, I had only to look at puppy photos in order to succumb and place a deposit on one of these.

Yesterday, the fatal day arrived. Karen insisted that we go and pick up our Tazy immediately upon the breeder announcing that he was ready to leave his mother.

We wound up taking the same fawn-colored male with the black mask (with a little white on the nose) that originally made an impression on us in the puppy photos. A brother with a darker color struck me as a possible candidate, too, but the darker puppy struggled and was unhappy when picked up. Our original choice was quite content to be handled, and actually never even whined or cried all the way back.

Our Basset Bleu de Gascogne arrived already named Cadet, so we decided to stick with the military theme. Since Tazys are slender and fast running dogs of Asian origin, we decided his name ought to describe him as a type of light cavalry of Asian origin, so we are going to name the puppy Uhlan.

Tired from a long drive