The breed was always thought to date back
at least to the pre-Christian era, and recent discoveries
by researchers studying ancient DNA have revealed that
the Afghan Hound is in fact one of the most ancient dog
breeds, dating back for many thousands of years. Its original
native name, Tazi, betrays its connection to the very
similar Tasy breed of Russia. The proximity of southern
Russia and Afghanistan argue for a common origin for both
breeds.
Initially, Afghani people refused to sell
their national dog to outsiders; the breed was not seen
in Europe and America until after the turn of the 20th
century. AKC and CKC did not recognise the Afghan Hound
until the 1930s.
On August 3, 2005, Korean scientist Hwang
Woo-Suk announced that his team of researchers had become
the first team to successfully clone a dog. The dog, an
Afghan Hound, was named Snuppy. Later that year, a pattern
of lies and fraud by Hwang Woo-Suk came to light, throwing
in doubt all his claims. Snuppy, nonetheless, was a genuine
clone, and thus the first cloned dog in history. ("The
panel found that Hwang's claims last year to have created
the world's first cloned dog, however, were genuine.")
