At the beginning of July, my Afghan hound, "Daphne,” earned her AKC Trick Dog Elite Performer title. The Elite Performer title is the fifth and final level of the AKC Trick Dog program, and to get this far we first had to earn the Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Performer trick titles.
For the Elite Performer title we had to perform a routine that had a story/script and consisted of at least 10 tricks with at least five of the tricks involving props. Additionally, five tricks of the 10 tricks had to be at the "Performer" level. The remaining five were allowed to be at the "Advanced" level but not at lower levels. The routine had to be filmed as one continuous video with no edits. Luring with treats/toys was not permitted. We ended up performing 12 tricks so Daphne would have some room for error.
I was inspired by the Afghan hound's heritage in our routine, so our story is about Daphne acting out what a fictional day in Afghanistan might look like. This includes her playing some folk music, studying the Pashto language, hunting a rabbit, and riding a camel. Our routine is simply titled ‘An Afghan Hound’s Day in Afghanistan.’
During her routine, she performs the following tricks: down from 15ft away, covers eyes, go hide, turn on a tap light, play the piano (minimum of four taps on one cue), unroll a rug, read index cards (sit, down, stand), identifies the flag of Afghanistan from a group of three flags, pivot around a disc, carry stuffed animal on back for 15ft, rides in a wagon for 10ft, and bow. I think my favorite trick was teaching her to identify the flag of Afghanistan. That one always impresses people!
We only started trick training back in February of this year and I never thought we'd come this far. On March 27th, Daphne earned her Novice trick title. I hoped that she might earn her Intermediate trick title by the end of the year, but wasn't sure if we'd make it any further than that. Yet, just three and a half months later on July 6th, Daphne became the first Afghan hound to earn the title of Elite Performer. I am so proud of how far she's come and can't wait to see what the future holds for her.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Small disclaimer about the Pashto index cards: I did my best to get decent translations for "sit," "down," and "stand" but had a very hard time finding a reliable English-Pashto translation resource. I made my final decision on what to put on the cards based off of information I gathered from cross-referencing multiple sources, but it's likely that the words I chose for "sit" and "stand" are not grammatically correct or are conjugated wrongly. The word for "down" actually translates to earth/ground as I couldn't find a proper translation for what I meant.
The song in the background is Ay Sholae Hazeen (Oh Desolate Flame!) by Ahmad Sham Sufi Qawwali Group.
