Very graciously and generously shared with us by Mimi Davis of Denver Afghan Hound Rescue
People have requested this tidbit so here it is. There is a little known fact amongst people who have either never had an Afghan Hound or had one that did not happen to exhibit this behaviour. Best described by my first experience. Almost 25 years ago my first two Afghan Hounds were 10 months and 3 months of age. They were out playing in the backyard while I was at the side of the house. All of a sudden I heard a sound I had never in my life heard. It was a blood curdling, high pitched scream. I went running around the side of the house only to find the 3 month old puppy had flung himself to the ground and was bellowing at the top of his lungs. Neighbors came running out peeking over the fence to see what in heavens name had happened. The neighbor behind my house said the big dog ran into the little dog.
No matter what I tried to do I could not get him to stop this horrible sound and immediately picked him up and drove to the vet hospital. My vet at the time was an old hand at Afghan Hounds and as I carried my bellowing, convinced he had many broken bones, baby in the door he immediately shut his trap. I explained to the vet what the neighbor had said and insisted he had numerous broken bones, broken ribs and internal bleeding and demanded x-rays.
At that point the vet started laughing so hard he had tears coming out of his eyes. Since this was my baby boy I was finding no humour whatesoever. I asked him what was so funny and all he could do was point to my puppy who was wagging his tail, trying to jump to get to the cat or treat jar I was never certain which. The vet said, didn't any of the veteran Affie people warn you about this? About what I asked, the panic anxiety scream attack he replied.
So here is the deal that you do not ever read about. Some puppies and a few adults when startled or afraid will make this God Awful sound. If you have ever heard a Beagle howl, increase the volumn to a 20 mile radius, increase the pitch similar to feedback at a concert and imagine somehow accomplishing this without taking in a breath to stop. Similar to Barbra Streisand with her signature, being able to hold a note while the rest of us have already gone gray.
There is really not much you can do since they go into almost a trance state. They have what can only be described as an anxiety or panic attack and it will not stop until they snap out of it. After they decide to stop the fit, decide that whatever scared them really is not present, they go back to whatever it was they were doing as if it never happened. Now this can be very alarming the first time you hear it. Expect people to come fleeing out of houses, some might call and report you for animal abuse or you might do what I did the first time I heard it and yelled at the neighbor to call an ambulance. Not to panic but naturally if they do not stop after a few minutes there really might be something wrong.
When I called my Affie mentor and explained what happened she also laughed and said I forgot to mention that, you get used to it after a while! My vet refused to do any x-ray's, told me to expect a few more Affie tricks and laughed me out the door. As we were walking out the door my baby boy just walked up to everyone to get petted and treats and jumped into the the back seat smiling.
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