Silken Windhounds in Europe
by Susann Stjernborg, Kennel Starcastle Hounds, Sweden
March 2007
Also published in the Silken Windhound Magazine

Silken Windhounds first arrived in Germany and Finland in 1998 and Sweden in 1999 after a 6 month period of “quarantine” in Germany. They are now found in several European countries including Austria, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, Slovenia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Looking at the pedigrees as Families, female lines and sire lines

To belong to a certain female or sire line does not mean you are not related to the other families.  But it is one way of following a descendant line, to keep track.

It is also not a bloodline. A bloodline means a family where the last 3 generations are unique to this family and not found in other families (bloodlines) this line is supposed to be separated from.

When we talk of female lines for instance, the sons and their descendants do not count  Males are representatives of their respective sire lines, females of their respective female lines.

We only have one single sire line, they all go back to Laguna Leo (Whippet)
You can see that all European dogs come down via Incognito or Gringo, one way or the other and if not, they come down from Windspirit Ice Major..

The sire line behind Den~San Belgium is hooking up to that line somewhere pretty early, but we don't know where. It could hook up at a male like Windsprite Autumnal Danny or Windsprite Wintery Xebec for instance. We simply don't know because we can't trace Belgiums sire line that far. Those dog are from kennel Windsprite (Longhaired Whippets) so we know it is still the same sire line.

But now, several generations later, it looks for Europe like we add one branch, first there is Incognito branch, then there is the Gringo branch and now we will get the Windsprite Ice Major branch, cause that is how far we can trace it.

For now, some dogs are more frequent in the breed then others.
Dogs from the Windsprite Ice Major branch are rare, and so are Silvers get.

If you look at the family tree page, you will find Bengala, a Whippet.
She had a lot of kids but to begin with not very many female descendants were bred, but during the last years they have been picking up and spreading out.. Being the mother of Gringo that makes her very much present in our pedigrees, not just as a female line..

As a female line Kristull Boston Legacy is another line that until recently has been rather rare.

The Jjuno family is a very young and budding family.

Willow, a Borzoi registered as a Founder in our studbook has not been used yet.

Fantasia line
Mostly present today at kennel Gentle Wind and Gryffyn.

This fantasy character was made by Blue Fish at Deviant Art.
See  more of her fantastic creations!

The character is named Daralulah
Name: is mixed of:

Talulah - jumping water
Dara - water angel, wisdom, compassion

The Kali line is well represented in Europe with 4 imported girls. The same goes for the Darque family with 3 imports.

And then there is the Amalie family.
Through Amalies daughter Windauer Kristull Windsong most of the European females belong to this family, see the family tree page.
And that is also true for an awful lot of the entire breed.

Up until now there has been so few breeders that it has been impossible to build up separate bloodlines. To make bloodlines really separate you need several generations built of many, many dogs, it takes several breeders to do that, quite possibly also “geographical "isolation" to help out.

We are too few and have far too few dogs to be able to build several separate lines in Europe for maybe the next 10-20 years (depending on how fast the breed expands).

It is an illusion to think you can "outcross" to an American dog, they all collapse to the same ancestors, but so does every other breed out there.

We are building a platform of the future European Silken Windhound.
We have to think and plan when we do it.

There is a big difference between breeding a rare and small numbered breed and the big old established breeds. Every breeder is still making a major impact on the breed as a whole.

If every breeder works just for themselves without looking at what others are doing, and that is the normal rule in the international doggie world where ever you go, we can easily ruin and topple this young breed in a couple of generations.

This is not like breeding Goldens or GSDs.
Without cooperation of the first enthusiast less than 10 years ago, the Silken Windhound would not exist at all. Not as a breed. There would be some, walking around in Francies backyard in Texas, but it would not be a breed.

We have come a very long way in a remarkably short time.

Page updated February 23, 2008