About Our Afghan Hound Breeding Program (THIS WAS WRITTEN IN ABOUT 2006)

Hosanna Afghan Hounds are carefully bred to fit the Afghan Hound Breed Standard (American Version - Afghan Hound Club of America, 1948) as closely as possible.  Among all the other details the breed standard calls for, we are especially striving to keep the correct 'square' outline, with backline being 'practically level from the shoulders to the loin'.  We think having a 'correct' backline is essential to having the 'correct' breed outline.  We also think 'Neck is of good length, strong and arched, running in a CURVE to the shoulders, which are long and sloping and well laid back' is extremely important.  Also, beauty from the head to the tail is of the utmost importance.  We see nothing in this breed standard that calls for anything but beauty and elegance.  About the head, it says 'no trace of coarseness or plainness.  A major goal of ours is to help PRESERVE this ancient breed, and our observation is that the description in the breed standard still fits photos of contemporary Afghan Hounds in their country of origin that we have seen.  We invite you to print for yourself a copy of the Afghan Hound Breed Standard, and study these pictures of our dogs and pups in light of it.  It can be found at: www.hosanna1.com/BreedStandardAfghanHound.jpg .  Here is a chart showing some of the outlines of this breed:  Breed Outlines  There are things that can't be seen in photos - feel free to call and ask any questions - (270)432-7272 - I love to talk about Afghan Hounds. 

Though there are no 'absolutely perfect' specimens of any breed, we think many of ours are very close. : ).  We are just beginning to overcome our absolute (when we started) inexperience with show grooming & handling, and have 'only just begun' to 'prove' some of them in the show ring.  We do intend to continue, and to prove them.  We would not breed anything unless the potential is there for excellence.  I have studied genetics for many years - it has been a life long interest, and the hounds are giving me a chance to apply that. You may see my qualifications at: My Resume .  We may breed about one litter/year, only if and when it may produce excellence - beautiful, sound, and correct Afghan Hounds of exceptional temperament, and further our goal to breed a line.

Our other 'highest priorities' are temperament and health.  We have several young children at home who help a lot with socializing and training our puppies.  A couple of them are getting active in AKC's Junior Handling program now - visit their new Juniors pages to see how they've been doing!  Though we have only bred a few litters so far, our pups have grown up to have a variety of talents.  Several are Certified Therapy and/or Service Dogs, another herds cows, sheep, and goats, and Micah is now being trained for tracking, search and rescue!.  This is a multitalented versatile breed!  Most are excellent watch dogs, and wonderful with well behaved children. 

Several have begun to prove their value in the show ring.  You can learn about our showing activities on the dogs' pages.  This past year we had a really awful experience, and our family has been financially devastated.  You can learn about this on the bottom of our Junior Handling page, by reading 'A Plea For Mercy'.  Though we are still committed to showing, and will return to that activity as soon as we can, we can no longer afford to do much of it in the near future.  And we will not let our bloodline die out just because we are not able to participate in the show ring for awhile.  Important though we believe 'proving in the show ring' is, it is even more important that our pups be loved above all.  Therefore, we are not attempting to place all in 'show homes' even if they are 'correct'.  We do place some 'show quality' pups in loving pet homes.

We have done extensive pedigree research - back to 10 or more generations, and lots of traveling and phone calling to find out about the health and other characteristics of dogs in our pedigrees. That is a job that is still in progress - we strive to find out all we can.  We have already gotten OFA certification on some of our breeding stock, and others are planned in the near future.  We will be using other testing as necessary to insure the genetic health of any puppies we breed, and our puppies come with written guarantees.

Since our breeding program started nearly 8 years ago, we have produced a total of 6 litters of Afghan Hounds.  We have no other breeds, and no one else is breeding our bloodline.  We have the only Hosanna Afghan Hounds.  We keep from 1-3 from every litter, and have placed an average of about 4 puppies per year, which so far has covered an average of about 25% of our expenses per year (NOT counting transportation and LEGAL costs).  Until my husband had to get a job off the farm just a few months ago, we had 6 people at home full time with them.  Throughout, our (very low income) family has sacrificed by living a frugal lifestyle, and with the use of debt, to continue an activity we consider to be very worthwhile, participating in the AKC Dog Fancy.  We have always strived to be an asset there.

We are a small 'hobby kennel', and take life time responsibility for our 'Hosanna' babies.  This is NOT a 'commercial' breed.  There is not much market for pets.  We will not place any with pet stores, 'puppy mills', or brokers.  We consider our Afghan Hounds to be blessings from God.  The reason our website looks as if we 'have' so many dogs, is that I have at least one picture of every single puppy we have ever produced on these pages.  And for the dogs who stay with us here, I have at least a whole page for each dog, or more than one page.   Some of them have gone on to Rainbow Bridge too, but we still love their beautiful photos, so their pages are still up on our website.  I honestly don't remember anymore how many pages of photos of Afghan Hounds we have on hosanna1.com.  There are LOTS.  If you love the beautiful pictures, do what thousands of others have done before, and bookmark our site and come back a lot.  We are always adding more, too.  We have no other dog breeds, and have no plans to get any other - we believe there is no other breed (for us, anyway : )

Lynda & John Farley

About Us ~ As of 8/2015, 27 of our 'home bred' have finished Championships, plus we finished one bred by another, for a total of 28 (in 2010 we finished Ch Paschar Emil, sire of our 2010 LITTER), and three of our home bred finished AKC Grand Championships, even though almost ALL of our beautiful puppies have gone to 'pet homes'. In 2005, we registered our Kennel Name, Hosanna, with AKC.
CLICK HERE ~ PUPPIES/young adult dogs AVAILABLE

     John Farley is a retired (since 1992) IBM Engineer.  I am an ex IBM Computer Programmer who has been a stay at home mom since 1988.  I gladly gave up a very lucrative career to be a full time mom.  We have a total of six children - all grown now, but for awhile 1-3 of them were in AKC Junior Handling.  We have 11 grandchildren so far (8/15 - #12 is due in a few months :).

We moved from south Florida to the country in south central Kentucky in January, 1993, for an improved lifestyle for our children, and because it is very beautiful, and the cost of living here is very low.  I have explained some of the reasons for our move here.  We willingly gave up our very affluent south Florida life style, so my husband could be at home with us too.  We have lived very frugally on my husband's small retirement pension, and enjoyed legally home schooling our children.  For many years I made all of our clothes, and all of our bread.  For quite a few years, we had a Jersey cow, who produced all our family's milk, and we even made all our own butter and ice cream.  We have wood for heat, no air conditioning, and we grow a garden.  I can and preserve a good protion of our groceries.  We have enjoyed the simpler, peaceful, very low budget life in the country with our children, and our Afghan Hound dogs.  It is a real joy to have 300 acres of God's country for our kids and hounds to run in.

We aquired our first Afghan Hound in 1989.  You can read about how we fell in love with this breed on his page.  This is also a great overview of what life is like with one of these magnificent hounds.  Alf was King of our 300 acre farm - now his kids, grandkids, and great grandkids carry on for him.  We have been learning to show them in AKC conformation.  Three of our four children still at home are now started in AKC Jr. Handling.  I hope you ENJOY the MANY pages of PHOTOS here.  Bookmark our site and come back as we update often.  No more elegant beings have ever graced our home & sofas.  MY HEARTFELT THANKS TO ALL THE BREEDERS OF HIS ANCESTORS, WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO KNOW HIM.  I LOVE the OLD-Fashioned Afghan Hound type.  See Breed Outlines to learn about 'type' in this breed.  Call or  e-mail me anytime (except please don't call early in the morning - late at night is fine. : ) We are in Central Time Zone, I Love to talk about my dogs.  Lynda R. Farley

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