Sport: The Longhair Showman

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It was abundantly clear to the 11,000 spectators at Madison Square Garden and to the thousands who watched the Westminster Kennel Club show on television last week that the aristocratic Afghan, Ch. Shirkhan of Grandeur, had a marked advantage over his five competitors for best of show. The others walked or trotted, ran or cantered like dogs. Shirkhan moved like a king.

But more than Shirkhan's liquid leg action persuaded Judge Beatrice Godsol to pass over the other contenders and award to Shirkhan of Grandeur the bluest blue ribbon in U.S. dogdom. The fine fawn-and-white boxer, Ch. Barrage of Quality Hill, seemed tired by the two-day competition and stood before Judge Godsol with forefoot splayed. No one could look at the imported English Pekingese, Ch. Chik I'Sun of Caversham, and not remember that last year's winner was the toy poodle Ch. Wilber White Swan; for a toy to win twice in a row was unlikely. The cocky Airedale, Westhay Fiona of Harham, stumbled and broke gait. The Dalmatian, Ch. Roadcoach Roadster, defied show-ring manners with the curving droop of its tail. But through all the long interlude, the long-haired, silver-blue Afghan stayed cool and aloof, a champion without pause.

Pharaohs Knew. "I think he is a beautifully balanced hound," said Mrs. Godsol as she gave the Westminster sterling dish to Shirkhan's owners, Sunny Shay and Dorothy Chenade. "He has a good Oriental Afghan expression and the correct lean Afghan head. He was the soundest moving of the six, and he is a very good showman."

The ancient Pharaohs, who knew and admired the Afghan breed, used a different descriptive phrase—a papyrus from 4000 B.C. refers to the swift dogs that roamed the Sinai desert as "monkey-faced." No one knows how or when the seed of the breed was transported to Afghanistan, but all along the wild, high borderland of northern India the great hounds became a royal canine family. They were smart enough to herd sheep, swift enough to run down deer, sturdy enough to tangle with leopards. Their broad, high-set hips lent unusual agility to their natural speed. They have been called "gaze hounds" because they spotted their prey by sight, not scent. British officers back from Asian duty told tales of untrained Afghan hounds serving as sentries at frontier forts.

Breeders Tried. The British officers brought the Afghans home to England just after the turn of the century, but the sleek, silken-haired dandies did not catch the fancy of U.S. breeders until the 1930's. Once they left the deserts and the rough hill country of India, the Afghans took quickly to soft kennel life. Shirkhan, says Part-Owner and Handler Sunny Shay, is an incomparable house pet. "Afghans don't shed, they are quiet and phlegmatic, they don't fight with other dogs. Despite their size [average 27 in. at the shoulder and 60 lbs.], they don't wear you down by tugging and pulling at the leash."