Saluki Dog Breed Information

The Saluki is one of the oldest documented dog breeds in the world. Tomb paintings in Egypt dated around 2,100 BCE show Saluki-type hounds coursing gazelle alongside hunters; modern DNA work places the breed near the base of the domestic dog family tree, distinct from European hound and herding lineages. In New Zealand the breed is genuinely rare, with NZKC registrations sitting in the low single digits per year and most Salukis living on lifestyle blocks in multi-sighthound households.

Adults stand 58 to 71 cm at the shoulder and weigh 16 to 30 kg. The Saluki comes in two coat varieties: smooth (short, close-lying coat) and feathered (the more familiar version, with light silky feathering on the ears, tail and back of the legs). Coat colours range across white, cream, fawn, golden, red, grizzle and tan, black and tan, and tricolour.

The trade-off worth naming up front is prey drive. The Saluki was selected over four millennia to course running animals across desert terrain at distance from the handler, and the wiring is unaltered. NZ rabbit, hare, possum, cat and free-roaming chicken populations all qualify as triggers. Recall is unreliable around prey for life. Off-lead work is realistic only inside fenced areas; ordinary urban parks without fencing rarely work.

Personality and behaviour

Salukis are reserved. The breed is affectionate with its household, often deeply bonded to one or two people, and indifferent to almost everyone else. The Bedouin tradition of treating the Saluki as a member of the family, distinct from other dogs, is visible in the temperament: a Saluki indoors lies on the couch with the household, pads quietly from room to room, accepts a quiet greeting but does not invite enthusiastic handling.

Strangers get neither friendliness nor aggression. A Saluki watching a visitor walk into the lounge is the entire greeting. The breed is not a watchdog and will not bark at the door; barking in general is rare enough that most NZ Saluki owners say they hear their dog vocalise less than once a month.

Salukis suit other sighthounds well. Multi-Saluki, Saluki-and-Whippet, or Saluki-and-Greyhound households are common in NZ sighthound circles. The breed is less playful in the Labrador sense than most other dogs; the play drive is not absent, but it is reserved for specific moments and short bursts.

The trait that surprises new owners is the height. A Saluki on a couch is roughly the size of a teenage human, and the breed is famous for stretching across furniture in unexpected geometry. Lap-sitting Salukis exist; lap-sitting in any conventional sense does not.

The other behavioural feature is sensitivity. Salukis remember handling, harsh or kind, for years. Reinforcement-based training is the standard; the breed shuts down on harsh corrections in a way that is harder to undo than for most breeds.

Care and exercise

Plan on around 75 minutes of structured exercise a day, including at least one sprint or extended trot in a fenced area three or four times a week. Salukis are endurance coursers more than pure sprinters; the breed can keep a fast trot going for an hour where a Whippet is done in three minutes and a Greyhound in five. Lead walking alone is not enough; the dog needs space to gallop regularly.

The exercise constraint is fencing. A Saluki at full sprint covers ground faster than any human can react. Most NZ Saluki households on lifestyle blocks have a paddock dedicated to the dogs; suburban Saluki owners book Sniffspot or fenced sports fields for weekend running sessions, often combined with the local sighthound network’s organised lure-coursing days.

Grooming is moderate. The smooth coat needs a weekly wipe with a hound glove. The feathered variety needs a brush twice a week, particularly through the feathering on the ears, tail and back of the legs. Sheds lightly year-round with no major seasonal blow-out, which makes the breed easier to live with on furniture than its size suggests. The thin skin tears on barbed wire, gorse, blackberry and rough park fences; small cuts bleed dramatically and need quick first aid. A styptic pen and basic wound care are worth keeping in the door.

The dietary watch-out is leanness. A healthy Saluki shows the last two ribs and a defined waist. Too much food during the first two years of pet life softens the breed silhouette, which looks fine but pushes the dog towards joint and cardiac issues later. Two measured meals a day, no free-feeding, treats counted into the daily total.

The cold sensitivity matters in NZ. The thin coat and lean build mean a Saluki shivers at 12 degrees standing still. A fitted winter coat for autumn and winter walks, a raised padded bed off cold tile floors, and a fleece overall for cold mornings are practical year-round in Wellington, Canterbury and Otago. The breed was built for desert; the smooth variety in particular is genuinely under-equipped for a Wanaka July without kit.

The other watch-out is anaesthetic sensitivity. Sighthound metabolism handles certain anaesthetic drugs differently to other breeds; lean body composition with low body fat changes drug uptake. Use a vet familiar with sighthound protocols, particularly for routine procedures like desexing and dental cleans. As a deep-chested breed, the Saluki carries some bloat risk; feed twice daily, avoid heavy exercise within an hour of eating, and learn the symptoms.

Where to find a Saluki in New Zealand

Salukis are rare enough in NZ that the supply chain is genuinely thin.

1. Registered NZKC breeders. The Dogs NZ breeders directory lists the small number of registered Saluki breeders nationally. Litters are infrequent. Expect a 12 to 36 month wait between expressing interest and bringing home a puppy, with NZ$2,500 to NZ$4,500 per puppy. Some breeders will decline applicants without prior sighthound experience, which is reasonable given the breed’s sensitivity and prey drive.
2. Sighthound rescues. Independent NZ sighthound rescue networks occasionally take Salukis or Saluki crosses, often as adolescent or adult dogs from changes in owner circumstances. Adoption fees run NZ$400 to NZ$800.
3. Imports. Some NZ Saluki households import directly from Australian or UK breeding programmes, which adds biosecurity costs and quarantine timelines on top of the purchase price.

Avoid any breeder marketing the Saluki as an apartment-friendly companion, downplaying the prey drive, or breeding at any kind of volume. The breed deserves an honest assessment of fit, and the small number of NZ breeders who maintain the breed take that assessment seriously.