Cretan Hounds also have guarding instincts as well as pastoral instincts.

The Cretan Hound lives happily together with other domestic animals but will ruthlessly chase the neighbor's cat!

Kritikos Ichnilatis (Cretan Hound)

The Cretan Hound uses both sight and scent on the hunt and they have a particular tendency to taste the aerial or ground scent, even to the point of sucking it from pebbles and stones.

The Cretan Hound is a slender dog, somewhere in the middle between a scenthound and a sighthound in body, particularly light on its feet (that are oval rather than cat-like) and strong in loin, specially adopted for swift reflexes and high speed over dangerous, rocky terrain.

They traded unrefined, prick-eared hunting dogs of Asian or African origin which locally they had developed into many breeds such as the Basenji, Ibizan Hound, Pharaoh Hound, Cirneco dell'Etna, Cretan Hound, Canary Islands Hound, and Portuguese Podengo.

The classic authors praised the Cretan hounds (Kressai Kynes) as the best hare-hunters known to man and in ancient times they were exported to the Greek colonies and other countries in Europe, reaching as far as Spain and the British islands, to mix and improve the local hounds.