Jon's Blog

Qatar notes 09 Apr 2005

My friend Dave has a saluki, and we enjoy getting our dogs together for various fun canine activities, so when a Qatari friend called and invited him out to run some dogs, Dave called me. We loaded up our kids and our dogs and headed out.

The group was waiting for us at a roundabout in Al Khor, which was a twenty minute drive north from our part of Doha. The group was comprised of three Land Cruisers containing several Qataris, about 15 salukis, and a bunch of kids. We followed them north, to a large open salt flat near Ras Laffan, where we met a couple more vehicles with more salukis and kids.

Everyone piled out of the vehicles, dogs and all, and we all milled about, going through the respective man-to-man, man-to-dog, or dog-to-dog greeting rituals as appropriate. My dog was the only black saluki in the bunch; most of them were cream, gray, or a mix thereof. After a few minutes, we all piled back into the vehicles, drove a little farther out, and stopped again. One Land Cruiser pulled about 100 meters ahead of the group, took a large dog carrier out of the back, and produced a smallish gazelle, which they released. Back in the main group, one saluki was released, and once it got about half-way to the fleeing gazelle, about a dozen other salukis were released. Everyone jumped back into the vehicles, and the chase was on. The gazelle was out front, with Land Cruisers and salukis scattered behind it in hot pursuit.

The dogs were running 50-60 kph, and it took 1.8 km for them to catch the gazelle. Once the lead dog took the animal down, the Qataris jumped into the fray and rescued the gazelle before the dogs could do any damage. Aside from one small bite wound on its rear hindquarter, and whatever psychological trauma gazelles undergo in a near-death experience, the animal was fine. They told us that this was a short-range gazelle, but they had others that could keep the dogs running for 5 to 6 km before being caught.

The large (now out of breath) dogs were returned to the vehicles, and the smaller dogs and puppies were brought out. A rabbit was produced, and the dogs had a big time chasing it. My dog wasn't interested in chasing the rabbit, but Dave's dog managed to catch it, or catch up with it, rather--never having caught a rabbit before, she didn't know what to do with it once she caught it, so another dog grabbed the rabbit in its mouth and ran off with it. By the time the Qataris caught up with the dog, the rabbit was in pretty bad shape. Rabbits don't deal well with near-death experiences.

Finally, we drove along slowly while the dogs ran behind (and among) the vehicles, to let the dogs cool down a bit from the hard run.

It was refreshing, and relieving, to find that at least some Qataris enjoy dogs, and their version of canine sport is certainly an interesting experience. We had a blast, the kids were enthralled, and the dogs were happy. The only unhappy individual was the Qatari kid, probably three or four years old, who was terrified of the dogs. They made him pet one of the larger salukis, and he almost came out of his skin before the deed was done. I imagine he'll get used to them sooner or later...a boy needs a dog, after all.

Posted by jon at April 9, 2005 03:55 PM