This is Guru Guru, our adopted Afghan cavorting in the yard. He has been referred to as a cat killer (rightly so).
Yes, he’s killed 3 cats and maimed one that the vet brought back to life. It really can’t be helped with the literally hundreds of cats roaming our part of the world, and because he has run of the garden, especially in the initial stages (when the cats didn’t realize how tall he is when he’s on his back legs – that is, he’s taller than I am and practically reaches the top of the wall), he would catch a cat – 3 of them underestimated his reach.
I don’t think anyone can deny that it’s in a lot of dogs’ nature to chase cats, just happens that guru’s legs are long enough to actually CATCH them. And afghan hounds are notorious for being cat-haters – after all, they were bred to hunt and kill wild cats in Afganistan. Yes, it’s a horrible thing, and the screeching of caught cats is really terrible, but what can one do? In any case, he hasn’t caught any cats in quite some months now and we’re very careful about him being off leash as he does really get the blood lust when he sees cats (you should check out his eyes – kinda scary!)
the above 2 were taken last year – you can see Guru is much much skinner in this photo. Wow. actually I hadn’t even realized how much weight he’s put on…
Shanti does a 2.8 km run nightly, extended to 4.3 km on weekend nights, rainy nights excepted.
Her average speed on the trot is 7 km/h, and she can do a sustained sprint of 16 to 20 km/h.
She has the stamina to follow me on the bicycle (with stops for pee-mail) without being winded.
She is in good health, and finishes 800 g of raw food or 1 kg of all natural dog food a night.
She does not do dog tricks, or obey nonsensical commands.
She understands, “No”, “Quiet”, “Friend”, “Mush” (run faster) and “Come” (optional). “No” and “Quiet” are instantly obeyed by Shanti, the rest depend on her mood.
She is, as far as I can determine, content, and the only failure I may have committed is perhaps leaving her alone for much of the day and not bathing her weekly.