Breeds / Large
Sloughi puppies
Reserved, dignified and gentle with its own household, the Sloughi is a Moroccan sighthound with a strong prey drive and little natural interest in strangers.
The facts
- Size class Large
- Country of origin Morocco
- Adult weight 18.1 to 29.5 kg
- Adult weight in pounds 40 to 65 lb
- Adult height 61 to 74 cm
- Energy level High
- Grooming Low
- Coat type Short smooth
- Typical lifespan 10 to 15 years
- Good with children Fine with supervision
- Good with other dogs Fine with supervision
Where these come from:
About the Sloughi
The Sloughi is a North African sighthound, kept for centuries across Morocco and the surrounding region to course hare, gazelle and jackal over open ground. It is lean and flat muscled, 61 to 74 cm tall and 18.1 to 29.5 kg, with a short sandy coat, a long tapering head and a famously melancholy expression. At home it is quiet and undemanding, and its manner is best described as aloof: warm with its own family, reserved and watchful with everyone else.
A Sloughi needs a chance to gallop at full stretch, and that has to happen inside a securely fenced space. Prey drive is high, and a running cat or rabbit will beat any recall you have built. Grooming is a weekly rub over with a hound glove. The coat is thin, so the dog feels the cold and wants a soft bed off the floor. Training works through quiet repetition and food, never through force. Newcomers often expect gundog biddability and read this breed's independence as stubbornness.
What to expect at eight weeks
At eight weeks a Sloughi puppy is sleeping around 18 to 20 hours a day, is not house trained, and cannot hold on for more than an hour or two at a stretch. A large breed puppy at eight weeks looks deceptively normal sized and will roughly double every few weeks for a while. Keep exercise short and low impact, the growth plates are wide open. This is a high energy breed. At eight weeks that shows up as intensity rather than stamina, and it will need a job to do long before it needs long walks. Grooming is straightforward, but start handling the coat, feet and ears in week one anyway so it is never a fight later. The socialisation window is open and closing: everything it meets calmly now, from vacuum cleaners to men in hats, is easier for the rest of its life.
Health worth knowing about
Conditions this breed is reported to be predisposed to. Predisposed does not mean inevitable, it means ask about it.
- Progressive retinal atrophy, detectable by DNA test on both parents
- Sensitivity to anaesthetics and some drugs, common in lean sighthounds and worth flagging to a vet before any surgery
- Dental disease, kept down by regular tooth brushing and veterinary checks
From Sloughi breed information at https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/sloughi/. Discuss any of these with your own vet.
Your Sloughi puppy's first six months
- Vaccination schedule, dated for your country.
- Worming and parasite schedule.
- Feeding calculator. Set expected adult size to Large for a Sloughi.
- Adult size predictor, to check growth against the 18.1 to 29.5 kg adult range.
- Puppy names and the first week checklist.
Other large breeds
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Not veterinary advice. Breed information is general. Your own dog, and your own vet, always win.