Asham

alias: 'Ashamino', 'Atte', 'Lillen', Ashamchen', 'the Lion', 'Tiger Eyes', 'the Horse', 'the Camel', ...to be continued..

I first fell in love with Asham's beautiful dam Maysun visiting her home page one day in April 2006. She had a special untamed beauty which completely put a spell on me at first sight, wonderfully accentuated by the lovely red coat with white markings. To my great excitement I noticed she had a newly borned litter, among it two red boys with black fringes... For some time I had dreamed of a saluki male, because of their pride being and character (I grew up with salukis, most of them females). And black fringed red just happened to be my favourite colour. Was there a way of resisting a puppy like this..with those eyes?? Not for me.. It was an impulsive decision of me to take a puppy at this time but..I was already very lost to Asham.

There were two other puppies going to the north of Germany. The owner of one of them was kind to bring Asham with him to Germany, as he went south to fetch his own puppy. I went to meet him and Asham at the end of June in Papenburg. Asham was a wise-looking, calm, and very heavy saluki boy , even more beautiful than I had expected. He looked at me from his cage in the back of the car with serious eyes, like he was thinking  "a new face again?...sigh" There was some discussion of whether or not he would fit into the little bag I had bought for him, but I decided to give it a try. With his head hanging out of the bag, looking out from the opening, he did fit in - just barely. But this was only when carrying him, so it was OK. Where possible, I would have him on the leash during the trip home on the ferry. In walking on leash he was a natural talent, walking beautifully from the very beginning, whithout ever someone having taught it to him. This also describes most of the things you want to teach him - he does it once and then he knows it (IF he wants to of course..)

Character: Asham is an intelligent male with quite a dominant character, a strong will, and an untamed personality. He has his own head and will not be talked into doing just anything. He's very territorial, being used to having his own girls and a big yard of his own ever since he was a puppy, with no other male as far as the eye can see. Needless to say, he's the leader of our pack, a position he took without asking at the age of about 2 years old.. He's a boy with an attitude and strong opinions, and wants most of the attention for himself ;). To his humans he is boyishly sweet, a kisser when he greets, but mostly wishing to keep a respecting distance of about 50 cm - he does like hugging to a certain extent, but is not so willing to admit it, the cool man he is :) - especially not in front of his ladies. He is very alert to signals, spoken or unspoken, sensitive in his way, but not letting anything bring him down too much. He communicates to a great extent through eye contact, more than any saluki I've known until now. Nothing ever passes his attention, and he's impossible to fool.  Asham has a survivor mentality- he takes every risk seriously. With strangers he is reserved, sometimes shy, depending on situation and the person's (and my) behaviour. You don't win his trust in a hand shake, but once you have it, he will always remember you.  And, this boy's a hopeless charmer- he knows if he looks at you deeply enough, making that special innocent face , he mostly gets his will through.. He is also a charmer of saluki girls, though he still has some things to learn about how to treat ladies :-) But a real womanizer though..And my favourite photo model, as you can see on these pages.