ive been researching silkens a lot lately and everything i read just makes them sound like they're perfect, flawless dogs. like a little too perfect to the point i'm skeptical. is there anything be careful with in silkens, in regards to health, behavior, training, etc? i read in your FAQ that they can be destructive when bored and that's very good to know! but do you have any other warnings? i really want one some day and just wanna be as prepared as possible!
Ooooh I hope you don’t mind me answering this publicly. This is a really good question!
There’s a ton of temperament variety in the breed so a lot of people can find their perfect dog (whatever that means for them). Some are more windsprite/whippet-y, some more borzoi, and some a funky little unique blend. There’s drivey silkens who make awesome sport prospects and there’s potted house plant silkens who make fantastic apartment dogs because they don’t move much and keep quiet. :)
I got a drivey little tornado trapped in a pixie’s body! He does have an off switch, but when he’s on… oh boy! Obie looooves the sound of his own voice. If he doesn’t get his play time, he’s all bark bark bark bark. We used to try to wait him out but he would keep going for 45 mins before we caved.
He’s also a very bouncy boy and rebounds off the walls when he gets hyped up. A few weeks ago, he got zoomies so hard that he crashed into my lip, which caught on my tooth and suffice to say I’m missing a bit of the inside of my lip now. 😂 We had to get locking garbage cans because he would legit take garbage baths!! And based off of a post in one of the silken FB groups, that seems to be a common thing! Some people will read that and be like “yes, give me exactly that kind of dog!” and others might think “nope, I’m out!” But again, not all Silkens are Obies. Some are even more hyped up, and some are about as active as a plank of wood.
On a much more serious note, some silken breeders (mostly on the west coast) bred to a male with a bite history because he is so pretty (ugh) and all of his puppies were freaked out or reactive. So definitely make sure to go to someone who really REALLY cares about temperament. I’m always down to give breeder referrals.
There’s a few health concerns. The big ones are MDR1 (multi drug resistance- basically death by ivermectin) and CEA (collie eye anomaly), which both have genetic tests so it’s slowly being bred out of the breed. One that I don’t see talked about too much is colloquially called “Lotus syndrome” (I forget the actual medical name) where puppies are born with twisted/malformed bones so bad that they are PTS. It’s not common and it’s not something Puppy buyers have to worry about unless they plan on breeding.
And the last thing I’d point out is that this is a pretty inbred breed. The good news is that this is slowly getting better with the breed’s genetic diversity program— there’s protocol for adding whippets and borzoi in order to increase genetic diversity. Even still, Obie as an F3 diversity dog has a COI of 22% which is on par with a sibling mating. My friend’s silken who isn’t from a recent outcross tested as 36%. It’s kind of remarkable how healthy and how long these little inbred dorks live, all things considered.
So tl;dr, some bark a lot, can be energizer bunnies, love affair with garbage, some temperament concerns in specific lines, some health concerns, and much inbred.
