Ibizan Hound

GENERAL APPEARANCE
Shoulder height: 56-74cm (22”-29”)
Colour: White, chestnut or solid lion colour or any combination of these.
Coat: Smooth coated - short hard and close. Rough coated - harsh and dense.
Gait: Ground covering suspended stride i.e. a hover between steps.
These tall extremely agile sighthounds are finely built. The amber almond shaped eyes are set midway between the slightly convex muzzle and the long flat skull with its prominent occiput. The very distinctive large, thin, and erect ears are highly mobile. The long neck is lean and arched and the shoulder blades are rather steep. Fore and hind quarters are long, lean and moderately angulated and the forefeet may turn out slightly. The chest is not deep and may finish up to 8cm (3”) above the elbows. The low set long tail reaches well below the hock at rest, but in action may be carried high.
CHARACTERISTICS AND CARE
Pronounced ‘I-bethan’, this is one of the few breeds that carries no black colouring anywhere - even the nose is flesh coloured. These clean cut hounds are almost catlike in their agility and are best kept within high fences when not out being exercised. So absorbed do they become when enjoying the thrill of a chase with another hound, often they will be deaf to their owner’s call. If ever needing an operation, care should be taken to ascertain that the vet will not over anaesthetize them as like most of the lightly built sighthounds, they have a tendency to remain unconscious much longer. Being clean hounds, little time is required on their coats.
HISTORY 
Sharing the same ancestry as the Pharoah Hounds, their origins are ancient.
As far back as 4000 years BC, these pricked eared hounds have been found on artifacts unearthed by archaeologists. Ancient tombs such as that of Tutankhamen of the 14th century BC, note the presence of the breed, and even Cleopatra once owned one of these hounds. No doubt, it was with the Phoenician traders during the pre Christian era that these hounds found their way to Ibiza, a Mediterranean island south of Spain from which the breed derived its name.