Added~responses to specific posts:
Killer/Itchy/Crescent Moon: Hm..well, I personally don’t think Killer is much like a Saluki or any sighthound at all.
True, any dog CAN get overweight, but I’ve seen “fat” sigthounds and believe me, with their metabolism and everything that doesn’t happen easily, and it’s physically impossible for them to get like Killer—but that’s being way too technical, ‘cause he’s just a cartoon. XD Being the jumbled mutt he is, he could have Saluki or any number of other things in him. However, it’s my contention that Sasha
is a Saluki, as some of you have speculated. SHE has a lot in common with them.
SunFlash: How did you 'figure out' salukis can't be Sasha's color? That's not so. Irish Setters are mahogany or chestnut red, but just because a dog is red does not mean they are one. Afghans and Salukis both can occur in just about any hound color, including shades of red that more closely approximate the lighter and darker areas of Sasha’s coat than anything else. ^_~ (Even if that wasn't the case, it wouldn't mean much--they're hardly realistic, are they? And you could always find some explanation, esp. in a cartoon. ^~ Which does make choosing breeds quite subjective, at any rate.)
Wow, another thought from me that comes waaaay too late to count for much…heh…well, I’ve thought ‘bout it so I’ll speak anyways.
Well, as to Killer, I always thought of him as a mutt. “Heinz 57” (ketchup, lol) is a good way to put it. I figured he was a mix of probably many things here and there, a real All-American (possibly w/ C ocker Spaniel or something like that
in there, actually, yeah, though
not as a purebred!) And he's not too large either. If I’d read he was supposed to be a (pure) Greyhound, I probably would’ve laughed and said, “He looks NOTHING like one!” The near-sighted sighthound thing is pretty amusing in general though ('cuz it's ironic--like Killer's name, LOL.) I still had no idea anyone called him a Greyhound (whereas, someone like Carface the Bulldog is plainly obvious). It's a real stretch, even for a cartoon, to see the similarity of Killer and a Saluki, I don't think they've a lot in common...but I can sort of somewhat slightly do it. xD
It’s very true that animated dogs, even those clearly based on a certain breed or breeds and not just some generic design, never looks just like what they are intended to be. (And it doesn’t matter, because they’re great the way they are!) They’re always adapted, modified or exaggerated in at least a few ways--and different ways depending on who's drawn them & when. So as for Sasha…well, officially she's been called an Irish Setter...but I never considered her one, and I'm still confused as to why or how they could’ve said that. I'm very good at identifying dogs and when I took my first look at her, that's just not what I saw.
She’s one of a handful of animated dogs who undeniably have Saluki written on them despite being labeled as something else, ie, an Afghan Hound or a Setter (including Rita from Oliver & Company, Brainy Barker from Krypto the Superdog and Dixie from The Fox & the Hound II.) Not that real sighthounds and setters look alike, cause they don't really--at least, not usually, or on the surface. But if you read into the fascinating but extremely tangled-up, lost-in-time histories of sighthounds, you see pictures of Afghan and Saluki type dogs (their more primitive forbearers under various names and labels, such as the breathtaking Bakhmull, an aboriginal Afghan) which bear some resemblance to other dogs in certain ways, including Irish setters. I have one photo in particular of an early 1902 Afghan hound (the 'Barukhzy hound') imported I believe to Britain from an area now part of Pakistan who sports a few features which sort of, the books notes, give him an "Irish Setter" appearance. Such things could maybe help explain this confusion over characters, however, for me there is no doubt that when you look at those in question Saluki is the first thing that should come to mind (IF you're really into dog breeds.) But 'breeds' can change drastically over time, even the 'purest' ones, and trying to compare real dogs to cartoon characters mustn't be taken too seriously or literally.
And since this is animation we’re dealing with, the characters wind up somewhere in between real-life animals, with some qualities of different ones; they're just cartoon representations of dogs (with human traits), that's all, like the essence of them. Usually you can figure out the nearest match(es)-but they're still just made up. Not everyone may agree. What matters is that they're dogs! Part of the beauty of animation is that it can be whatever you want it to be.
Now, if Sasha were a hound, as I feel, she would definitely be a Saluki rather than an Afghan Hound.
(Humanish hairdo ‘topknots’ are the only sort of Affie-type thing they give these dogs; they don’t have the long coat that hides their bodies.)
Though these two are very closely related, it’s still clear. I think the reason nobody is ever technically identified as a Saluki is that so few people would even recognize a Saluki or know what one is (which is fortunate really.) I happen to because they’ve been my favorite breed forever, and now as an owner, I can attest to that. Or, maybe they weren't even going for the look at all and wound up with it by accident.
As to the color--with real dogs, while the beautiful rich mahogany of a Setter is very much the breed’s hallmark, it’s also true that Afghans and Salukis come in an extremely wide array of colors. That’s part of what I love about ‘em, no two look exactly alike (in any way for that matter-they have
loads of variety and a range of types), and they seem to come in just about every canine color--or fairly close, anyway. For Afghans "any color or combo is permissible" (except spots) and Salukis have a very wide, actually tremendous, range of colors and shades and markings. Behold some examples:
www.saluki.sk/standard/farby.htm After all this rambling, I feel like including some photos of my Saluki, just for fun, as there has been discussion of the breed in terms of a few characters. She is still a pup, but she's petite sized anyway, & she is “red"--which, when you think about it, is really like a variety of brown/tan…
whatever. (That last pic is her mother Tara the day of her birth, whose feathering was sparser then due to having pups, & she’s supposed to look just like her dam when she grows up.)
As you can see, Salukis do indeed come in Sasha's coloration also (which isn’t truly mahogany, anyway, but varied shades of red/brown/orange, you know, that family of colors--but ANYhow, I do NOT think the animators paid so much attention to all this stuff, they were just having fun designing awesome characters, and they said we’ll make one a reddish dog and call her an Irish setter, and bla bla, maybe they never noted or cared that she came out more recognizable as something else, even if I find that a mite hard to believe..) ~^ Holy cow...*shuts up*
Just click to enlarge.
plus he's a cartoon and it fits his character, any dog can become fat and out of shape 
Wouldn't change her for nothin'.
He could be part Pit Bull Terrier though.