Pharaoh Hound

About the Pharaoh Hound

Maltese farmers call this dog the Kelb tal-Fenek, the rabbit dog, and have hunted with it at night on the island for centuries, working stone walls and terraces with nose, ears and eyes together and a small bell to tell the handler where it is. It is the national dog of Malta, The resemblance to ancient Egyptian art that gave the Pharaoh Hound its English name is a coincidence rather than evidence of descent.

Dogs stand about 56 to 63 cm, clean-limbed and elegant, with a short glossy coat in tan or chestnut, white on the tail tip and often on the chest and toes. The breed has a genuine peculiarity: when excited or happy the nose and ears flush a deep rose, which the standard describes and which no other breed does in quite the same way. A stud should be athletic, hard-conditioned and confident with strangers.

This is a sound, unexaggerated breed with a short health list. Ask for hip scores and a current eye certificate, and about patella examination, since luxating patella has been reported. Raise thyroid function and any history of seizures in the line. As with all the sighthounds, tell whoever will care for a puppy that the breed can react differently to certain anaesthetics, which is easy information to pass on and awkward to discover late.

Health & breeding

We check every hip, elbow, eye and DNA result you give us against the Royal Kennel Club’s public records by hand, and we record who checked it and when. The Royal Kennel Club’s public records may not include all the screening a dog has had, so a dog with no Royal Kennel Club record showing is not necessarily untested.