There are many neat things I’ve noticed in breeding dogs with the way that two parents combo, and particularly with personality and temperament details.
Bandit was always highly food motivated which made training easy (especially for a borzoi). Thought toys were fine, loved natural bodies of water but wasn’t thrilled with pools at dock diving training.
Zsa Zsa is particular with her food rewards and moved like molasses through her training. She loves toys and will fetch, like most of her siblings. Water was kind of meh, both natural bodies and pools, but her siblings and extended family are pretty big dock divers.
Cypress, their kiddo and one of my keepers, got the food motivation, the toy drive, and an obsession with water that outshines both of her parents. She will whack me on the head with her toys when she wants to play fetch and I will burn out on play faster than she will. I had to use kibble for training (stack photos especially) because she would launch herself at me like a piranha for wet food or string cheese. String cheese is low value for her mother and vegetables were high value for her father. She’s my little monster 🥰
I was researching more rare sighthound breeds and came across the Xarnego Valenciano, sometimes called Podenco Valenciano and lots of other reshufflings of those words. They look like the more well known Ibizan Hound but are a bit smaller and can have silky feathering! They also come in smooth and rough coats, and their ears are a touch less sharp and pointy than their Ibizan cousins; just a bit more rounded. I was immediately enchanted.
Photos by Matilda Lindström of the lovely Mira.
They also come in various shades of red/brown and can have black coats as well.
To say I fell down the rabbit hole was an understatement.
It appears that the only breeders of these dogs are in Spain where they are used for coursing small game. The only kennel club that recognizes the breed is the Kennel Club De España. I have contacted a few friends who have connections with various Podenco breeders in Spain, in the hopes that someone can indulge my curiosities and feed me as much info about them as possible. I don’t know if I’ll ever own one, but I am eager to learn more.
On Breed Names: Silken Windhound, Silken Windsprite, Windsprite, Longhaired Whippet
If you are unfamiliar, the above references two dog breeds, in spite of all of those names. For ease, I'll primarily be using "Windsprite" and "Silken Windhound".
Breed 1 began as the Longhaired Whippet, was recognized in parts of Europe as the Silken Windsprite in the early 2000's, and is now called the Windprite by their international parent club though still with the silken prefix in Europe.
Breed 2 began being called the Silken Windsprite (prior to Breed 1 adopting that name in Europe), then became the Silken Windhound.
A brief history of the breeds themselves:
Windsprites were developed in the 1950's by a man called Walter Wheeler. To his dying day, he maintained that he found a rare long coated gene in whippets. Early whippets could be wire coated as the breed developed through terriers to bring down greyhound size, but that gene is dominant and no longer exists in the whippet gene pool. Through modern science, we know that at least one shetland sheepdog was part of the intial mix (later possibly a touch of borzoi and possibly italian greyhound, per breed enthusiasts). Windsprites can have the genes MDR1 (a drug sensitivity which mostly affects ivermectin) and Collie Eye Anomaly (CEA), neither of which are present in purebred whippets. Wheeler initially registered these coated dogs as purebred whippets but the whippet community was not happy, and AKC later revoked their registrations. He continued breeding them under the name "Longhaired Whippet".
The initial accidental breeding in the early 80's that started silken windhounds was between a windsprite named Zee, and a borzoi named Peacock. Francie Stull was pleased with the outcome that her borzoi added to her windsprites, and continued breeding and showing these dogs as windsprites at rarity shows through the early 90's. Eventually she revealed to Wheeler that she had added borzoi. He wasn't pleased, but Stull continued with her borzoi x windsprites as a fun project. Stull's borzoi x windsprite mixes (or proto-silken windhounds) are listed in both breed pedigree databases, however, they did not continue to contribute to the windsprite gene pool. It is unknown where the drop of borzoi in windsprites came from, though Wheeler did have at least one borzoi on his property.
Back to naming.
"Lonhaired Whippet" was never going to fly with the whippet folks, and Stull knew this. She ran a sighthound magazine that Wheeler advertised his dogs in, and she had suggested calling Wheeler's breed "Silken Windsprites" to differentiate them from his smooth coated dogs. Silken for their coat, and Windsprite as a nod to Wheeler's kennel name.
Stull continued referring to her dogs as silken windsprites after the big borzoi mix reveal in the early 90's. Once it became clear that she was developing her own breed project, Wheeler had his secretary write Stull a letter demanding she cease utilizing his trademarked kennel name. He offered a list of possible alternatives, and one such alternative was "Silken Windhound". That is the one that stuck.
So Walter Wheeler provided Silken Windhound, and Francie Stull provided Silken Windsprite.
For years I had wondered why the European countries that were individually recognizing windsprites as a breed, chose the name "Silken Windsprite". To my knowledge at the time, that was only ever Francie Stull's name choice that she used for her own project dogs, the first name used for silken windhounds. I found it to be confusing, and certainly both communities field a lot of questions from interested parties about whether or not they are separate breeds. That question of why "silken" was used for registrations in Europe still remains unanswered to me, but the new context I have was that Francie was encouraging the use of that breed name, "Silken Windsprite" for windsprites back in the 80's and early 90's. Maybe some folks just liked it and it stuck for them too, who knows.
Outside of Europe, the longhaired whippet breed name was dropped in favor of "Windsprite" in 2018. From my observations, the windsprite community encourages the use of this name, sans "silken", at least outside of those European countries that recognize the breed with the silken addition. Choosing "Windsprite" over "Longhaired Whippet" appeased the whippet community, and choosing to not include "Silken" helps differentiate windsprites from silken windhounds.
I’m not sure if I’m actually see less black and white thinking in the breeding community compared to when I got started in purebred dogs, or if now, being a breeder, I’ve been slapped enough times by the universe to give people the benefit of the doubt more, and assume there is more nuance to what they are doing. Idk. Maybe both. I used to have very hard rules, lines I thought I would never cross, and many of my peers did too until we actually started breeding dogs. The longer I am in this, the more I see scenarios where I have to question my stances on things. 12 years is a long time and I’m rightly still considered very new at this. It’s really, really hard to check off every single box on the list of things you need to do, without compromise somewhere. And everyone’s list is a little different. Every time I learn something new, I feel so much smaller, and I realize how much I don’t know. And this is a game of constantly learning!
I just wanted to tell somebody that my brother, unable to remember the term silken windhound for his friend’s childhood dog, called him a “windswept lassie”
Rezance Nighthawks, Ozzy. He’ll be 6 months old in a few days. Bandit’s little copy/paste!
We came very close to keeping him but I’m grateful to have an incredible co-owner close enough for a few visits each year.
Structure: He is growing into such a handsome young lad and is structurally a good improvement on both parents in many ways. A touch short on leg perhaps but I was told this is common on the sire’s side of the pedigree, and he could still easily grow into that bod. His back to loin ratio is sublime, he is balanced, his tail is perfect, etc. etc. I’d prob give his ears a little more finesse (tighter, bit higher). The things I would pick apart are truly small potatoes.
Temperament: Sweet sweet sweet! Snuggly, giant marshmallow, endless optimism. But also, very weenie hut junior. Just a sensitive little guy who wants peace on earf. I shaved his pits for his holter test and had to make fart sounds to distract him from the clippers.
I never got around to sharing that the puppies were born but they’re almost 8 weeks old now and I’m very pleased with the litter. Ozzy (bottom) is one of the stand out boys and he reminds me so much of Bandit (top) at that age. Bandit pictured at 6.5 weeks and Ozzy at 7 weeks.
It is with a terribly heavy heart that I share that Bandit passed away on May 4th, 2025. We discovered osteosarcoma after he broke his left front leg and put him to rest that same day. I miss him. I miss him so much.
He was loved by many people here, and I greatly appreciate everyone who shared in his joy for the last 11 years. He was the boy that started it all.
I palpated Z and felt little bumps but it’ll be easier to tell next week when pups are walnut sized. She’s getting a late ultrasound on the 31st and then we’ll see if there’s going to be little Bandit pups at the end of April or not 🥰
