Our involvement with the breed started thirty four years ago, which now seems so far back that it really was THE PAST. However, due to our current successes with long-term frozen semen, our past is actually our PRESENT and therefore our FUTURE, which will make this article unique! ! !

In the meantime, 175 conformation championship titles have been granted to Afghan Hounds carrying our Calahorra Prefix, plus 2 C.D. and a F.Ch., of which we are equally proud. In that time we have had the great good fortune to be the ONLY breeders in any breed ever to have the distinction of producing THREE individual B.I.S. winners at the world famous Sydney Royal (CHS CALAHORRA TURBAN, BENEDICTUS and BOCCACCIO) and TWO at Brisbane Royal (CHS CALAHORRA REQUIEM (sister of Benedictus) and BOCCACCIO, making him extremely special, plus an Opposite in Show (CH. CALAHORRA MOSQUE) there as well. Add to this, three more famous individuals, the only Afghan EVER to win Best Puppy in Show at the famous Sydney Royal (Ch.) CALAHORRA ISHMAEL, the only Afghan EVER to win Opposite Puppy in Show at Sydney Royal (Ch.) CALAHORRA CATACLYSM, and the only Afghan EVER to win Puppy in Show at Brisbane Royal (Ch.) CALAHORRA THE HAWK.

We are delighted to have exported to 24 countries so far and our hounds have titled in many of these places. Perhaps even more importantly, Calahorras are found in the pedigrees of many of the top winners throughout the world. We have always maintained a large kennel, believing as we do that there are many wonderful and varied facets to the Afghan Hound, and that no "one type" is absolutely correct, although, of course, we have our preferences for certain features (and Stuart and I often argue over which Afghan Hound to retain or to promote, believe me!).

We both contend that a selection of bloodlines is necessary to do justice to these variations in order to maintain the individualism for which our breed is famous. We do not subscribe to the theory that every Afghan Hound in a kennel should look as if it has been cut out with a cookie cutter and that "cloning" is the proof of a successful breeding programme. Our breed, as we know it in the Western world, started with two distinct types, the Ghaznis and the Bell Murrays, each having a great deal to offer. After more than thirty years of consciously interbreeding the two "types", with the deliberate intention to trying to amalgamate the "best" qualities of one with the best of the other, we are convinced that it would have been a mistake to have separated them into two "breeds" in the early days, which is often now advocated as the procedure which should have been followed.

However, in order to recognise the integral variations of our breed, it is necessary to maintain a large gene pool. As a result, and for all of our thirty four years in the breed so far, we have normally around thirty Afghan Hounds in residence, an average of twelve in coat, the others oldies who are clipped off but spend the rest of their lives with us, the remainder being puppies and "aspiring" teenagers. We do not cull litters, as we believe that if we cause a puppy to be brought into this world, we are responsible for ensuring that he obtains a happy and suitable home for the rest of his life. For this we are often criticised by those modern breeders who, by our standards, seem to take Afghan Hound lives very lightly. To maintain a kennel of our size in this day and age creates an enormous work load, both physically and mentally, with the maintenance, care, socialising and presentation of the dogs on the one hand, and the vast amount of time and attention needed to plan matings, and keep up with the records and all the ensuing paperwork on the other.

It was easier in the days when we had permanent help, much harder now when we do not, and as we ourselves head towards becoming "the past"!

I first saw Afghan Hounds in 1961 when I was in England training with B.O.A.C. to be a flight attendant and was instantly determined to have one. Stuart and I were married in 1962 and he gave me FURBARI BAKHASAR for Christmas, the pedigree tracing quickly to the English bloodlines represented in Australia at that time. We had needed to search to find one as they were still very rare.

With encouragement from his breeder, we showed him to some good wins and were literally hooked on this historic breed with its primitive and absolutely unique anatomical construction, its character which was so "different" from any other dog we had known (and we both came from families filled with pure bred dogs of several different breeds) and its exotic, romantic "uncivilised" heritage.

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