Old Croatian Sighthound

The Old Croatian Sighthound is a coursing dog of the Croatian karst and the Adriatic hinterland, long since reduced to a remnant.

History

Sighthounds of this type coursed hare over the stony open country of Dalmatia and the Croatian interior, kept by rural households rather than by any registry. The type faded through the twentieth century along with the hunting it existed for, and what documentation there is comes from Croatian cynologists working to establish whether a distinct population survives at all.

Temperament

Accounts describe the sighthound pattern: quiet and undemanding at rest, wholly committed in pursuit, attached to its own household and indifferent to strangers.

Care and training

It needs room to gallop and secure fencing; a sighthound in chase does not hear anything. The short coat needs little.

Health

Sighthound anaesthetic sensitivity applies; nothing else is documented, and the record is thin because the population is. These are patterns for the type rather than a forecast for one dog; the measured facts are in the panel.