Overview
The Old Croatian Sighthound was a lean, short-coated coursing dog from the Balkans, closely resembling the Greyhound but a little smaller. Its name in Croatian, hrt, simply means greyhound.
It was kept by hunters to chase hare, catch it and bring it back. The breed never had formal recognition and is now considered extinct.
History
The breed is thought to descend from sighthounds kept by the Celts, and dogs shown on Celtic coins of the fifth century BC look very much like it. Friars of the 13th and 14th centuries wrote about such hounds in the region.
Under the former Yugoslavia, coursing with sighthounds was banned and hunters were barred from owning unregistered dogs. A few survivors were found around Orašje in the early 1980s and a breeding attempt at the Zagreb veterinary school failed. The breed is believed to have died out by 1995.
Appearance
A Greyhound-like dog with a slim, athletic frame, standing about 60 to 70 cm in males, with females 5 to 10 cm shorter. The coat was short and smooth.
Temperament
As a coursing hound it was fast, keen and focused on game, and it was trained to retrieve its catch to the hunter. Like most sighthounds it was probably calm indoors and driven outdoors.
Care and exercise
The breed no longer exists, so there is no care to practise today. Dogs of its type needed wide open space for sprinting, a warm and dry bed and light grooming.
