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Posted by agilebasenji on January 28, 2003 at 16:48:35:

In Reply to: Re: which is the oldest breed of dog in the world? posted by PHRascal on January 28, 2003 at 13:19:54:

::It was most likely some sort of sighthound that isn't *exactly* like any breed today, but resembles a great many of them.

I like the G*A*S*P idea!

But really, certainly the oldest breed is the basenji. :-P
And if you've every had a basenji you would know why other breeds were quickly developed.

Actually, ram, the answer to your question depends upon who you ask, but most people agree that the oldest breed was some sort of sighthound. For some people this is a heated debate.

Here's a website with lots of pictures from ancient Egypt. With that tail, ears and bells on the collar this dog couldn't be anything other than my beloved basenji. (No way is that a saluki!) Although some of the coat colors for the basenji is different from what we have today. Also check out the link to Akhethotep, Pehenuka, Ptahhetep, Reemkuy, and Senbi which also have clear pictures of Basenjis.

http://bleedingeyeballs.com/basenjiart/artifacts.htm

Of course the Egyptians also had other breeds of dogs:
http://bleedingeyeballs.com/basenjiart/egyptiandogs.htm

And just incase you don't know exactly what basenjis look like today, here's a link to some pictures of one of the finest basenjis around (and the fact that he runs this household has absolutely NO impact on that statement).

www.turn.to/digital
Check out his coursing page in order to see what how the basenji tail comes uncurled when they are running. His is still a bit curlier than some but you can see it does come uncurled quite a bit while he's running.

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