Khattaf (imp. Syria)
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Thurayah (imp. Qatar)


Born 7.6.2007
5 dogs & 1 bitch,
3 feathered & 3 smooth.


Colors white, masked red, masked sable, masked bl/tan, masked tricolour

The parents of the S-litter were aquired with breeding in mind.
More info on the dam Lublub (Thurayah) can be found on the N-litters' page :)
My Syrian friend Basil Jadaan gifted Khattaf to me. I first met Khattaf in Syria, when he was a 5 month old rascal - wild and sociable and beautifully built, I was immediately impressed by him. On the same trip I met his parents and siblings - particularly his sire, who I'm told is an excellent hunter, is a gorgeous Saluki. Here in Finland Khattaf has grown into a gorgeous, very active, very loving and people-oriented boy with wonderful movement. I decided to mate Lublub, dam of my N-litter, with him, as I thought they would compliment each other well both structurally and temperamentally. There's some shyness in Lublub's first litter, and I hoped Khattaf's exceedingly outgoing personality might balance out any such tendencies.

Previously I have had my prospective breeding animals' hearts auscultated by a vet,
now I decided to have a cardologist do it. Lublub's heart was "perfect", Khattaf had a minor, 1. degree heart murmur. The ultrasound showed no abnormalities, but in checking blood flow with the Doppler, a minimal leak of the left mitral valve, the cause of the murmur, was found. This worried me, so I consulted with the cardiologist, the Saluki breeding council and the vet in charge of the Saluki Health Project in the US. It turns out that 1/3-1/2 of randomly trested Salukis have heart murmurs, but only a fraction of these manifest symptoms of any kind. Mild valve leakage can have been caused by, for example, an infection, and as such is not necessarily congenital nor hereditary, though there are valve malfunctions that can be either or both. After these consultations and speaking to those who had reserved puppies from me, I decided to proceed as planned. In addition I decided that henceforth I would have all litters checked by my cardiologist prior to giving them to their new homes. This was done with the S-litter - at 7 weeks all hearts were as they should be.

Khattaf's heart was re-examined when the pups were about 15 months old, with auscultation, ultrasound and Doppler. The murmur had not intensified, the heart remained unchanged with no thickening of the valve, and the backflow miniscule. Thus the cardiologist concluded the heart murmur is of no practical consequence, though it should be remembered that any heart examination only shows the condition of the heart at that moment. Nevertheless welcome news :) Khattaf was also TgAA tested - the result was TgAA negative, so good news there too :)

Lublub was again an excellent mom - she is a joy to breed because she wholeheartedly enjoys the entire process, from the mating to the pregnancy, she's a good whelper and a devoted mom, and makes all of it look easy. Again she cleaned, fed and raised her pups beautifully and for as long as they were here. Khattaf too has enjoyed the pups enormously and gets a big kick out of playing with them. I had expected an all smooth litter, but got 3 featherd pups and 3 smooth. As I write this the pups are 6 months old, happy, active and outgoing, and very nice looking kids. I wish them long, healthy, happy lives!

The S-litter is now about 1½ years old and thus far they have been very healthy. One of the boys had a dog bite on his leg that became infected, but healed well. They are energetic, happy and sociable and have grown into beautiful, well moving Salukis.