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Kennelportrait: Shi'Rayân

Shi'Rayân Sloughis in the U.S.A., 1993-2003

The Doghouse

Shi'Rayân began when Dominique finally convinced me that we should move from Germany to the USA. In the summer of 1989, I started to look for a position, and accepted one at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, in the fall of 1990. The start in this new country was rocky, as my passport was stolen at the airport, thus raising the specter of being thrown out as an illegal immigrant. Dominique arrived one month later, with the two Sloughis and the three Cockatoos. Ultimately, it all worked out, and we then enjoyed living in our house in the middle of the city. In the spring of 1993, we had our first litter, the "A" litter. Anticipating the future growth of our Sloughi population at home, we acquired a 42-acre (18 hectares) property west of Omaha, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the summer of 1993. This property had a log cabin on the top of a hill, surrounded by fields and forest. We fenced in an 8-acre area for the Sloughis to do as they please. In 1999, we eventually sold our house in Omaha and built a second "people house" near the log cabin, in this peaceful place we now consider our private natural park. Finding Shi'Rayan requires navigating a car for some 5 miles over dirt roads, a challenge in the middle of a blizzard or a violent storm which is not uncommon in this part of the country.

As stated above, the first Shi'Rayan litter was whelped in April 1993. It was out of a French-bred bitch and a German-bred dog. We later imported other Sloughis of Dutch, German, and Moroccan bloodlines, and Sloughis from Tunisian and Algerian pedigrees in 1999, as well as an outcross between German and Libyan lines in 2002. We thus have established a breeding colony which provides a broad gene pool from which to breed into the future. As biologists and geneticists, we rely on our fields of work to help us develop a healthy breeding program.

From the 'A' litter, we were blessed with three exceptional Sloughis, all of which played major roles in the integration of the breed into show and performance events in America. With these youngsters we started to explore the possibilities of showing and racing the Sloughi in the U.S. Dominique had grown up with the Sloughi in Europe, since 1962, and had bred the first Sloughia to get a racing license in Switzerland in the early 1970s, named Uddah. Dominique's passion for these sports was strong. Much to our dismay, we soon learned that Sloughis were not integrated in any event, despite the fact that they had been bred regularly since 1981 in the U.S.A. In addition, it turned out that the Sloughi is considered to be a 'rare breed' in America, a term which refers to any breed that is not recognized by the American Kennel Club (AKC), and they therefore have no access to all the AKC-sponsored events. In the spring of 1994, Shi'Rayan Sloughis competed in their first shows, and A'ssissa Shi'Rayan became the first-ever Champion for the breed in any U.S. show venue. At this event we also learned that showing in the U.S. cannot be compared with showing in Europe. In all shows here there are 'professional handlers' who earn a living by showing dogs for clients. If we were to compete with those professionals we had to learn a lot and learn quickly. At the next show we surprised some of these handlers by taking the Best in Group several times against one of the top handlers who showed the number two ranked dog in that show venue. However, when we went in for the Best in Show competition, we had no chance yet. This took another half year of training, and in the fall of 1994, Aswad Shi'Rayân won the first Best in Show ever for a Sloughi in the Western Hemisphere. We continued to show our Sloughis in a number of events, later including the Mondiale 1997 in Puerto Rico, where Aswad and A'ssissa won Best Brace in Show against some 35 braces, took multiple group placements, with A'ssissa becoming BOB World Winner, and Batal Shi'Rayân from our second litter the World Winner dog. All of this was largely meant to educate the public about the Sloughi and to expose different judges to typical specimens of the breed.

During this time we also turned our attention to amateur performance events and worked hard to get the Sloughi breed recognized in those events. The Sloughi was quickly accepted by the National Oval Track Racing Association, in December of 1994, thanks to its director, Jack W. Lewis. In 1995, the Large Gazehound Racing Association (for amateur sprint racing) was created by Jack William Lewis in Utah, after we had asked whether there were any sprint racing events for breeds other than Whippets. The Sloughi is now a foundation breed of LGRA and 8 Sloughis launched the first-ever LGRA race meet in September of 1995, to be won by Amir Shi'Rayan. In lure coursing, under the American Sighthound Field Association, it has taken several years for full recognition, during which time 12 of our Sloughis competed at many events to prove that Sloughis are good coursers, and 9 of them became Foundation Coursing Champions in ASFA for the breed. ASFA finally fully recognized the Sloughi in 2001. Among the three breeds to be similarly considered for recognition (Sloughi, Azawakh, Italian Greyhound), Sloughis earned the most Foundation Coursing Champion titles, including the only Foundation Courser of Merit, won by Bouthayna Shi'Rayân

Shi'Rayan Sloughis have also captured the highest titles in oval and sprint racing as well, with many champions, 3 Supreme Oval Racing Champions and 3 Superior Gazehound Racing Champions in sprint. After the milestones set by Amir, Aswad, A'Ssissa, and Bouthayna, Shi'Rayan Sloughis have gone further in subsequent generations, namely with Fahel Shi'Rayan, who is currently the #1 all-time dog in LGRA, having twice won, in 2001 and 2002, the K'lar Award, given to the #1 dog of all breeds each year. Shi'Rayân Sloughis have thus not only initiated this new sport of sprint racing for other breeds in the U.S., but they continue to be major players in these events.

We also currently continue to show our Sloughis. The breed is now recognized in all show circuits in the USA except those of the AKC, including those of the oldest registry other than the AKC, the United Kennel Club. The United Kennel Club, together with the Sloughi Fanciers Association of America, also developed the first American Sloughi Standard. Shi'Rayan has bred many champions, group winners and Best in Show winners in these various show circuits. This includes a recent first-time-ever total sweep of BIS Veteran in all three shows of a weekend event, with our old gentleman, Aswad Shi'Rayan, at 10 years and 3 months of age, who also placed second in a large group entry of much younger hounds each day.

Shi'Rayan has also been very pleased to be the first to initiate a successful transcontinental artificial insemination in Sloughis with frozen semen (Spring 1999, with the Syringa kennel, Sweden). Shi'Rayan has also worked with an American laboratory to develop the genotyping test (established by Dr. J. Epplen in Germany) for Progressive Retinal Atrophy in the USA. All Shi'Rayan Sloughis are now genotyped for PRA, and we are very pleased that no puppies from our breeding will develop that inherited disease in the future.

Sloughis we have bred have also begun to participate in tracking and herding events as well as being trained for therapy work in hospitals and hospices. America also offers the possibility of open-field coursing on live prey. The Sloughi has been accepted in this venue since 1992, but we have not participated in these events to date.

It has now been 10 years since Shi'Rayân Sloughis have started to help integrate the breed into the dog world in the U.S. Our Sloughis have, with the help of Sloughis of members of the Sloughi Fanciers Association of America, the oldest Sloughi club in the U.S., as well as far too many other people to name here, managed to integrate the Sloughi into all conformation and performance events in the US, with the exception of AKC-sponsored events. S.F.A.A. has been presenting Sloughis to the public in multiple specialty and supported entry events in the U.S. and Canada since 1995, and has also recently coordinated the first-ever Virtual Specialty for the breed in 2002.

Last, but not least, our own personal integration into the academic world in the U.S. has also been quite successful. Currently, our research is supported by multi-year grants from major national science foundations (National Institute of Health and NASA). We both hope to be able to ultimately integrate even more of the behavioral and developmental analysis we do in our science into the breeding of even better performing Sloughis. In this way, we hope to contribute further to the genetic well being of this ancient breed and thus participate positively in the preservation of this most valued hound of North Africa for future generations of Sighthound enthusiasts.