Taken from a speech given by Francie Stull at the 2015 SilkenFest
By 2000, only one Whippet had been brought into the breed successfully. Perhaps one of the most telling points is that two other Whippets were not successfully integrated.
One of the reasons that it is so hard to use a Whippet to introduce new genetic material into the breed, is because, for tens of generations and over a hundred years, Whippet breeders have bred for the shortest, finest coat hair possible. It can take three or four or more generations to have offspring with, what most of us would consider, a good Silken Windhound coat.
Kristull Elegance ~~ a Bengala daughter. An example of the smooth coat on a Whippet cross at the second generation of a dog that carries the longhaired trait recessively to the smooth coat. A second reason is that, because a Whippet is short coated, and traits that might be shown, if the dog were long haired, are not displayed, therefore we have no idea, whether the quality traits of the coat are appropriate for a Silken Windhound or not. We have identified at least 23 different genes that control what the coat looks like when the dog
is long haired. This includes color, of course, as well as many other characteristics. Just imagine some of the breeds that are long haired:
Kristull Gringo ~~
longcoated Son of BengalaThey all carry different coat patterns, but more than that, we have variety in:
- Borzoi,
- Irish Setter,
- Cocker Spaniel,
- Old English Sheepdog,
- Shih Tzu,
- Shetland Sheepdog,
- feathered Saluki,
- Afghan Hound.
The list goes on and on, and every one of these characteristics has to be appropriate for the dog to be integrated into the Silken gene pool.
- length of hair (from relatively short to long),
- density of coat (double coat of a Sheltie, single coat of a Maltese),
- facial hair (the smooth of the Collie, but the beard of the Bouvier des Flandres),
- texture of each hair (from nearly cotton candy in some Afghan Hounds, to hard guard hairs in Alaskan Malamutes),
- wave of hair (from kinky to curly to wavy to straight),
- whether the puppies grow a puppy coat or not.
Trying to include Whippets in the gene pool is a tough assignment, but it seemed important to maintain the small frame and elegance of line, along with the prey drive of the Whippet breed. I made a couple of stabs at bringing in two different Whippet lines early on, sadly those experiments were total disasters.
But let me tell you about Kridoni's Bengala. Back in the 1980's we were still calling them Longhaired Whippets, so my name was out there, associated with the little Lurcher type dogs. In early 1989, I received a call from a man in Lima, Peru, who had imported a Whippet male from the US to breed to his Argentinian bred female: World Winners, Peruvian Ch. Lalique. When the puppies were ultimately born, two of them were fuzzy.
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a brother of Debs SmallWorld Happy (Bull?) ~~ a grandson of Bengala, with Peacock in the pedigree three times, from 1999 |
Over the years of trying to bring Whippet blood into the breed, I had found that the coats of smooth dogs, that carry the long haired trait recessively, were categorically different from dogs that were double smooth. The first indication is that they are fuzzy in the nest. As adults, they often have longer tail hair, and pants, requiring many of them to have to be plucked or shaved, to show them in the ring (see Elegance, above). These two puppies were fuzzy, no doubt about it. Augusto said, "will the American breeders hate me?" I laughingly said, "YES . . . when will they be eight weeks old?"
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Kristull Dulce, Nobunny and Ingot ~~ daughter of Bengala |
I made arrangements to fly to Lima less than two months later, finding the cutest puppies that I had seen in a long time. Many breeders in South America are not very versed in vaccinations and inoculations. These puppies had not had their shots, so before I left for home, Bengala, the brindle, who was named because her stripes looked like a Bengal Tiger, came down sick, with what looked like distemper. Penicillin is over-the-counter in Peru, so we stopped at a pharmacy on the way to the airport. I dosed her before putting her in the crate and again, when we had a lay-over in Miami. I can't imagine what I would have done today, but back then, you could visit with, and even walk the dogs, that you were travelling with, if there was a lay-over. Bengala was really sick, though. I was scheduled to turn around and fly the next day to San Francisco, so when I arrived in Austin, I ran the poor miserable puppy to the vet, and told him he HAD to save this puppy! He pulled out all stops and did save her, much to my relief and the betterment of the breed.
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Avalon Shot of Java ~~ Joe X Aitanga |
In looking back, it is probably more surprising that Bengala was a success, than that the other Whippets were failures. Since Bengala carried the longhaired trait recessively, we did save one generation, by being able to see the longhaired coat pattern in her direct kids, rather than having to wait for two generations. Remember that the smooth coat is dominant to long hair, so when you cross a Whippet with a Silken Windhound, the first generation looks just like a Whippet, but we know that they carry the long hair recessively. Java, on the left is an example of a first generation cross between a smooth Whippet and a Silken Windhound. I doubt that anybody would recognize her for being part Silken, other than the more elegant head than most pure Whippets.
If I had to guess, I believe that part of the reason that Bengala was a success, when those who preceded her were failures had nothing to do with her, and everything to do with the dogs that I could breed her to. They were Peacock grandsons, typically with the heaviest coats. Since she obviously (in hindsight) carried appropriate coat pattern for a Silken, there was not much negative to overcome.
Although she was not one of the original founders, I will mention that Java has been far more difficult to bring into the breed, taking a good three generations to really get coat on most of her kids. As you can see, even though she carries the longhaired trait recessively, just like Elegance at the top, you can see from her photo to the left, and in the bottom of the right column, just how short coated she is.