Pharaoh Hound

In a nutshell: An ancient, rare sight hound, an out and out hunting dog

Known as: Kelb-tal-fenek (trans. Rabbit dog)

Description:  Hunts by sight, scent and sound. They are Malta’s national breed and are used by local farmers to hunt in small packs with ferrets along the many dry stone walls that exist in Malta and Gozo. They are classed as a 'long dog' and can run for hours without tiring.

Medium to large with short coat, light to dark red in colour with white 'flash' on chest and amber coloured eyes. Finely built with deep chest, very lithe and agile, well knuckled feet and reasonably muscular. Dogs 24”-26” & Bitches 22”-24”. As far as I know they are the only breed known to physically blush when embarrassed.

Temperament: Can vary. Very intelligent, but only for their own benefit. They are stubborn, yet sensitive, at times almost cat like in their mentality. Tend to be independent, shy of strangers and keen to do their own thing. Like home comforts and extremely lazy except when exercising, this is when they come alive. Will accept training (despite many experts beliefs’) but extreme patience and a good working knowledge of dogs is required. As with most hounds need to be careful when food is around.

Advantages as an agility dog:

• Can easily jump 6’, so no problem if the jump heights go up!!
• Fairly slow, so good for the handler who wants something they can keep up with or want to get past “traps” set by judges on an agility course!

Disadvantages as an agility dog:

• Hard to motivate,
• Easily distracted
• Leg length makes contacts almost impossible - both p and down!
• Back length makes tight turns something to dream about.
• Even when they go wrong you still have to praise them as they are very sensitive, and if you don’t? Well try running them again on the same day. 
• When the sun is out the only thing they like to do is sunbathe.

Rating out of 10: Depends on the owner/handler. I enjoy running a Pharaoh because of the challenge that they present, and the feeling from getting a clear round feels the same as a win. I guess most people would rate them as a 1/10 (low) as they are not ideally suited to agility due to lack of motivation. As previously mentioned they are very sensitive, yet stubborn so require very experienced handling even as a pet.

Examples of dogs that have done well in agility:
Spirit (Serafin Spirit of Shabaka) was the only Pharaoh regularly competing in agility in the UK and did get placed at Novice level particularly on difficult courses. His best results include: second in Starters Power & Speed, first (yes, first) in Novice Graduate Pairs (paired with an Australian Shepherd Dog) and eighth in Novice agility.

As an aside, Spirit also achieved Bronze, Silver and Gold UK Kennel Club Good Citizen scheme, plus very high results at Lurcher obedience competitions, proving that with patience, practice and praise they can become obedient.

There are two other Pharaohs that compete at Starter level but only occasionally.

To see more Pharaohs in agility, go to http://nefer-temu.8m.com/agility. This site was set up in America and will help to provide a balanced view on Pharaoh hounds who have done well over the other side of the pond, although class sizes are a heck of a lot smaller than in the UK.

What's are they like to live with as a pet:
Provide a comfy cushion and you will not know you’ve got one. Give them an inch and they will literally take a mile. They read you like a book and will push to get what THEY want.  Their hunting instinct makes them difficult to exercise, best to use somewhere with fencing (high) particularly when they are young and get them into playing ball as early as possible as this helps to keep them distracted. As with most hounds they have a jealous streak so need to be watched in certain situations.

Would you buy another one for agility? Well I’ve already pulled all my hair out so maybe, but only after I have tried something similar looking, faster and with more working blood in it. (i.e. Australian Kelpie). If I were to get another one, I would have to go for a small bitch/dog (23” max on the shoulder) as Spirit finds it almost impossible to get the dogwalk contacts even if I walk him on to them due to his length of stride.

Source: Nigel Staines

Sadly, Nigel lost Spirit when he was hit by a car after being frightened by a firework - obituary