The breeding of Afghans
started in Finland in the late 1940's and our present dogs are based on dogs imported to
Finland in the late 50's. We have never had an excess number of Afghans in our country,
the registrations have been around 100 per year during the last few decades.
In Finland the Scandinavian
type of Afghan is the most predominant, but there are also dogs of somewhat different
type: a clear American influence can be seen and there are also dogs which represent more
the Continental or Australian type.
Afghans are very popular
show dogs in our country and we have about 40 all-breed shows annually, 11 of which are
international shows. In addition to that we have about 6 specialty shows for
Sighthounds
and the National Specialty for Afghans which is arranged by the Afghan Hound Club of
Finland. This show is by far the biggest Afghan event of the year having entries from 140
to 180 dogs. This is a very big number considering the number of registrations. The judges
for the National Specialty are always foreign breed specialists. At many all-breed shows
Afghans have the biggest entries compared to other breeds. At international shows the
entries usually vary from 50 to 100.
To become a show
Champion in
Finland the dog must acquire three Certificates from three different judges and the third
CAC cannot be obtained before the age of two years. The CAC is given to the best
non-Champion if the judge qualifies it to the competition for CAC. For the
International Champion title the dog needs four CACIBs from three different countries. We usually have
about 20 National and a few International Champions each year.
Our Afghans are also
functional dogs, some of which participate in racing and lure coursing. We don't, however,
have different types for show and racing dogs and especially coursing is very popular
among show dogs. In 1996 we got the first "triple" champions in Finland, when
two dogs became show champions as well as racing and coursing champions. Our motto in
Finland has always been to produce beautiful functional Afghans.
The Afghan Hound Club of
Finland was founded in 1966 and in 1973 it became the official breed organization for
Afghans, the duty of which is to promote and supervise the breeding of Afghans in Finland
so that the level of the breed would be as high as possible.
The Club has more than 500
members from 14 different countries. In addition to European countries, we have members
from the USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Russia. Our Club publishes an
Afghan magazine which comes out four times a year and a book every fifth year containing
articles, statistics and pictures of dogs. New members are always welcome, if you want to
subscribe to the magazine, you can become a member by contacting our secretary and paying
the membership fee, which is EUR 25 + EUR 10
= EUR 35 (p&p) at the moment.
