A Brief History of the Silken Windhound
Too seldom are dreams brought to fruition, but Francie Stull has done just that. The 1975 thought of expanding her champion borzoi Kennel Kristull to include an additional, smaller breed eventually evolved in 1982 into the dream of creating a smaller, coated sight hound with the attributes of her beloved Borzoi.
It was determined that this new breed would be carefully bred to be small-medium in size, wonderful temperament, easy to care for longer coat, healthy, and retain the poise and sporting heritage of sight hounds.
"It would be nearly a decade before we finally bought our first tiny, longhaired sighthounds from Windsprite", said Francie referring to the 1984 visit to Walter Wheeler's Windsprite Kennels. Mr. Wheeler had developed a coated, whippet-like hound from exceptional quality whippet lines. While Mr. Wheeler refers to his breed as "Longhaired Whippets", recent DNA studies support the introduction of a herding breed into this charming breed.
In the early 1980's, Francie discovered one of the Silken Windhound foundation bloodlines through an advertisement submitted to Sighthound Magazine for a recent Borzoi litter. "This had to be one of the most beautiful groups of dogs that I had ever seen," stated Francie. "It included the famous bitch, Eng. Amer. Ch. Stillwater Virginia Reel."
Not acquiring a puppy upon first visit to the breeder, the Stulls left with the promise of first offer for the purchase Virginia Reel's first daughter.
Eventually, Stillwater Virginia Reel was bred to Stillwater White Lightning. As Francie remembers, "we were rewarded with our new blue brindle passion, Stillwater Kristull Peacock. Peacock had the coat, structure and charisma that we had bought her for." With her breeding to Windsprite Autumnal Xenon, Peacock founded a new breed, the Silken Windhound.
Francie combined her experience of breeding more than two hundred champion Borzoi with her educational background in genetics and started down the road to Silken Windhounds. The foundation dogs were from some of the best show and coursing Borzoi lines in the United States, Windsprite's whippet-like hounds, and a single Whippet imported from Peruvian Kridoni Kennel infusing blood into the breed from some of the most influential Whippet lines in the Americas today.
"What has resulted from the wish I had in 1975," states Francie, "is a magnificent little hound that seems especially designed to fill a surprising gap in the line-up of Sighthound breeds -- a medium sized elegant hound with long hair. The Silken Windhound is the perfect breed to fill that empty spot. They are small, typically 18-24 inches, with devoted, loving and confident personalities. Their easy-care coat comes in all colors, from pure white to pure black, with reds, creams, brindles and silvers in solid and spotted patterns to suit the most discriminating taste."
Typically, Silkens live very healthy, active lives. While most live into their late teens, the oldest known Silken lived a few months past her 20th birthday.
After years of selective breeding, Silken Windhounds arrived as a breed with the first litter whelped in 1987. In 1998 the name Silken Windhound was officially adopted and the Yahoo Windhounds list was formed.
The International Silken Windhound Society, chartered in 1999, maintains all pedigrees and DNA verified registrations for the breed. The ISWS closed its stud book in 2000.
In what seems like the blink of an eye, Silken Windhounds are now found throughout the United States as well as Bahamas, Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Union of South Africa, and United Kingdom. While members of the ISWS continue to move forward towards entry into AKC's program for registering a new breed, these loyal Silken companions are active in conformation, coursing, and racing events as well as working as service dogs and training for cancer detection.
For more information about Silken Windhound history, please visit the following page at Kristull's site:
http://www.silkenwindhound.com/history.html
