Pharaoh Hound breed guide

The Pharaoh Hound is quick to learn and eager to please. AKC warns that there is a problem teaching it to come off lead in an open area, since most Pharaohs, however obedient, will not come when called once they find themselves suddenly in a chase.

These friendly, affectionate hounds possess the speed and graceful movement of all coursers descended from Bronze Age hounds.

Pharaoh Hounds live 12 to 14 years. Dr. Stephen Sipperly of the Pharaoh Hound Club of America health committee notes that CHIC certification requires screening for hip and elbow dysplasia, patella luxation and eye disorders and that most results are normal.

The most common cancers are hemangiosarcoma, mast cell tumor and mammary cancer, though some are likely age related.

Pharaoh Hounds do not need a great deal of grooming: daily light brushing or a heavier weekly brushing, with baths as necessary. Keep the ears clean and the nails short enough that they do not tap on the floor.

The breed needs a regular exercise schedule. A self-runner needs 15 to 20 minutes of running twice a day in a six-foot-high fenced area of at least 50 by 50 feet.

The history of dogs might be very different without the Phoenicians, AKC says. These seafaring traders from what is now Lebanon sailed the Mediterranean 2,500 years ago and are assumed to have spread Egyptian hounds through the ancient world as far west as Britain.

The prevailing theory has the Phoenicians introducing the Pharaoh Hound to Malta as a rabbit hunter and in 1979 it was named the national hound of Malta.