The Kanni is a rare indigenous South Indian sighthound breed of dog found in the state of Tamil Nadu. Their native breeding tract is located around villages in the Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts. The breed is used mainly for coursing game. “Kanni” refers to the black and tan and black and sable varieties, while the variety which is one colour is known as the Chippiparai. However, some experts claim both Kanni and Chippiparai dogs to be distinct dogs.

Kanni is a royal indigenous hound dog breed in Tamilnadu, India. During ancient times it was generally used for hunting by Zamindars (Aristocrat) and Landlords. In the beginning, such breed of dogs existed in Tamilnadu especially in Southern districts like Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Virudhunagar and Madurai.

Kannis are used for hunting blackbucks, hares and other rodents. Like all hounds, Kannis use their speed and endurance to hunt their prey. They use their excellent sense of smell and sight to track and hunt their prey. Kannis are trained to obey subtle hand signals of their masters while on the hunt. Kanni dogs have been known to hit speeds up to 60 km/h. The key to the Kanni’s capability as a coursing dog can be found in its light but muscular build, large heart, double suspension gallop, and extreme flexibility of its spine all like that of Cheetah.

Name

The name Kanni means “pure” in Tamil and was given to this breed for its loyalty – purity of heart. The Kanni is also known as the Maiden’s Beastmaster for its veracity with which it defends its territory against other wild animals and because they are often gifted to newlywed brides as their guardians. Although Kannis come in different colours, generally only the ones that were black and tan were given as marriage gifts. This led to the wrong naming of the black and tan coloured breeds as Kanni in dogs as well as goats in future. Even though the native people call this breed as Kanni, KCI registered this with two names. It registered the black and tan coloured dogs of this breed as Kanni and the rest as Chippiparai respectively.

Colour types

Kannis have short coats, which can be brown with black, fawn (Santhana Pillai), light red (Sevalai) to dark red (Karum Sevalai), cream, white (Mayila Pillai), red with white, or pale grey (Sambal).

Other colours include black with fawn markings (Paal Kanni), black with dark tan markings (Seng Kanni), black with fawn face and legs (Karung Kanni), fawn head and legs with rest of body being black (Parukki), and brown and white (Semmarai). The rarest colour is brindle (dark grey stripes on a white or ash base), which occurs as the result of the reversed gene of K chromosome, when a dark coloured Kanni is mated with a white or ash coloured Kanni. If correctly bred, not more than 2 brindled Kanni puppies can be born out of 7 to 9 littermates. Kannis with this type of coat is called Pulichchaarai or Pulicharai.

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