Come with us and share our experiences with the King of Dogs: the Afghan Hound
Welcome to our "family". You may have pets of your own. But there is nothing like a relationship with Afghan Hounds.
We are Brian and Laura Wood. We live on a farm in north-central Montana. We have four grown human kids, six grandchildren, and now four Afghan Hound kids. Brian has lived his whole life on the farm. Laura spent her early childhood in Plains Montana (a town in the mountains). Her mom was a school music teacher and they moved around throughout her youth. We had an Afghan Hound named Sasha, (pictured in the pickup seat) adopted from the pound in the mid 1980s. She was a wonderful dog, but at that time we were raising pigs and didn't have time for her.
We always wanted another, and in the spring of 2006, Laura made arrangements with Hammid Kennels in Saskatoon Saskatchewan to purchase a two-month old black-mask red female puppy. At the end of May we travelled to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to pick up the little girl at a dog show there. The breeders had brought our puppy and a brindle that someone else was interested in. When we were introduced to our puppy, she was great. The other people came to see the brindle puppy but they weren't impressed because she was too skinny. She also wouldn't go to them, preferring Brian. So we made a deal and brought the two puppies home: now known as Punkin (in middle picture above) and Baby.
Because both Laura and Brian have full-time day jobs, having the two puppies allowed them to have each other's companionship all their puppyhood. It was great. They did everything together and we heartily recommend getting two Afghans if you are ever interested in this breed of dog. Then, when they were just under a year old, Baby died tragically in March 2007. (See her story.)
We felt like we needed to get Punkin another companion. She seemed depressed. We looked for another similar aged female but found none that were easily available. (We later learned we should have gotten a male of a different age for best compatibility.) We contacted Ronda Hamilton of Hammid's about Baby's passing and she offered us a replacement three-month old puppy from the next litter of Baby and Punkin's parents. Ronda picked her out, similar to Baby's looks, and again, we would meet in Moose Jaw to get the new puppy. Ronda Hamilton's daughter Amanda Middleton, also had a litter born in December 2006. There was a black-masked red male who looked very cute in pictures. We thought it worked so well having two puppies the same age that we decided to purchase the little boy and then also make the trip less expensive/dog. The "kids" were great. But Punkin wanted to play with them like she did with her almost year-old deceased littermate - which was pretty rough.
Then, our previous attempt to find Punkin a similar-aged companion got results. Kentuckian Lynda Farley of Hosanna Afghan Hounds reluctantly agreed to place her year-old showgirl Cat (with Laura in top picture) with us. She wanted Cat to be an AKC champion and Cat had 9 of the 15 required points. We had no experience showing, but agreed in the placement contract to do our best to get her finished. So we made the arangements to fly Cat from Kentucky to Great Falls, Montana and picked her up just before midnight on March 23, 2007.
We've been in over our heads ever since!
Brian and Laura Wood
Box 153
Loma, MT 59460
(406)739-4344
lmccwood@yahoo.com
A late summer Google Earth aerial view of our home and blue-outlined eighty-acre electonically-fenced "yard".
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