swfamilies

For those of us who enjoy tracing pedigrees and family traits, I have prepared the following document to track the development of Silken Windhound families. The family designations are my own, based on names of dogs who have left a founding influence on the breed. Any omissions or mistakes brought to my attention will be corrected! 1/01-A.H.

Silken Windhound Families:

Families are traced directly through the female descendants of particular foundation broodmatrons. Interestingly, families can be genetically traced by analysis of the mitochondrial DNA, which is passed ONLY from the dam to her offspring. It must be remembered, especially as we get further from the originator of the line, that there is a great likelihood that our Silkens will of course be a mix of families and can not be said to represent a single separate family; however, they are considered to be members of a particular family through their direct female descent. (On a pedigree, these will be the females that form the "bottom" line, which is sometimes referred to as the "dam line," just as sire lines are those that are traced from the stud dogs at the top of a pedigree.) In this document, only Silkens which have left breeding daughters and females that are known or expected to be members of the breeding population are mentioned.

Part 1, Existing Silken Windhound Families

(Half-Borzoi foundations)

D Family (Darque), descendants of Kristull Darque Decision:

Windauer Sadie of Rhyka

Kristull Ultra Suede

Kristull Shadow of Darqueness

K Family (Kali), descendants of Kristull Kali:

It appears that the K family will be very well represented, as at least 3 or 4 of females (not to mention several

males) of each Kali litter is in a breeding home. Females that can be expected to expand this family are:

Kristull Abracadabra

Kristull Talisman of Sheba

Kristull The Surprise

Kristull Tourmaline WS

Kristull ? (Black brindle Irish)

A Family (Amalie), descendants of Kristull Amalie :

WindAuer Kristull Windsong (Ruby)

Kristull I? (black brindle Irish)

Kristull K? (tan patterned black brindle)

L Family (Legacy), descendants of Kristull Boston Legacy:

Kristull Lalique Elite

Whitefeather's Kristull Echo

Whitefeather's Electra

Den-San Christmas Candi

Den-San Christmas Cole

(Whippet foundations)

B Family (Bengala), descendants of Kridoni's Bengala:

The B family is well represented in the Silken population.

Debs SmallWorld Emerald

Debs SmallWorld Indy

Debs SmallWorld Miss May

Debs SmallWorld Garnet

Debs SmallWorld Happy

Debs SmallWorld Love

Debs SmallWorld Roses

Debs SmallWorld Leapt Legacy

Debs SmallWorld Leapt Liberty

Debs SmallWorld Leapt Locket

Kristull Gaelic of Lagniappe

Kristull Elegance (Chula)

Part 2, Potential New Silken Windhound Families:

The following broodmatrons have been or will soon be test bred and may produce additional Silken Windhound families:

(Half-Borzoi foundations)

J Family (Juno), descendants of Juno:

S Family (Silver), descendants of Kristull Silver:

And possibly, at least one more family will be added to this list in the future.

G Family (Grace), descendants of UltraViolet Grace:

The pedigree of this possible foundation female is at least partly (most likely totally) based on the same LHW foundations as the A and L families, and would also be extremely closely related to the Den-San branch of the H family. It can not be considered to be an outcross family .

Silken Windhound Sire Lines

I) Breeding Descendants of the Laguna Leo Longhaired Whippet Line: (Silken Windhounds in blue)

Laguna Leo, sire of:

Windsprite Gamin, sire of:

Windsprite Jove; sire of

1) Windsprite Oriel, sire of

Windsprite Winter Galop sire of

Windsprite Wintery Xebec,

Windsprite Autumn Wood Wine

Windhaur Hamlet Of Ryhka

Kristull Jeu d'Esprit

Kristull Jesric Tangaloor

Kristull Sawyer Brown

Kristull Dante by Cool Run

Kristull Landsraad Tangaloor

Kristull The Harlequin

Kristull Texas Pinto

2) Windsprite Winter Dodger, sire of:

Windsprite Winter Unicorn

3) *Windsprite Winter Dandy, Sire of:

Windsprite Winter Legend

Windsprite Autumnal Danny

Ch. Windsprite Autumnal Xenon

Debs' Kristull Gregor

Debs SmallWorld Memorial

Debs SmallWorld Taurus Debs

Debs SmallWorld Romance

SmallWorld Leapt Lavish

SmallWorld Leapt Legend

SmallWorld Leapt Leader

Kristull Beloved Behemoth

Kristull Northern Lights

Kristull Feathered Wonder

*Judging from the Windsprite naming patterns, Windsprite Winter Dandy should be a littermate to Windsprite Winter Dodger

??Kristull Chili - Kristull Xoom, Kristull Zorro- Kristull Cezanne at Cool Run

II) Uncertain Longhaired Whippet Sire lines that appear on some Silken Windhound pedigrees:

Skyrocket of Mardormere

AKC Ch Wilbarries Kepene Hemi

Windsprite Autumnal Image

(appears to have died out as a sire line, unless this is the line behind:

Windsprite NDT Danny

Windsprite Ice Major

Windsprite Ice Upheaval

Windsprite Northcorbin of Claybrook

Mystic Caravan's Merlin the Magician

Claybrook Joseph of Iowa

Den~San D'Artagnan- or -

Windsprite Snowy Prince

as the pedigrees behind Windsprite NDT Danny, Windsprite NDP Danielson, and the Windsprite sires "Banner" and "Carbon Copy" plus several others - appear to be unknown); and finally, we have Tackle (Windsprite ?), sire of Sebastian, the remainder of the pedigree for this Windsprite bred dog remains unknown.

The Windsprite Family of Longhaired Whippets

Hillgarth Shot Silk (by Eng Ch Seagift Speedlight Mustang [Eng Ch Pilot Officer Prune x ?] x Hillgarth Silver Suntan [granddaughter of Eng Ch Silvergirl of Whitegate] ) is the foundation family dam behind most (or all?) of the Longhaired Whippets in the Silken Windhound pedigrees.

(I)/Windsprite Athena

(II)Windsprite Brocade

Windsprite Demi-Tasse

Windsprite Hued Snowdrift

(A)Windsprite Winter Glow

(1)Windsprite Winter Nymph

(a)Windsprite Autumnal Image

(b)*? Windsprite Winter Xmas???

Windsprite Autumn Jazz

(2)Windsprite Autumnal Diane

Windsprite Frost Kapok

(B)/Windsprite Winter Gavotte

*This is true IF Windsprite Winter Xmas is a sister to Windsprite Wintery Xebec, and the name Xebec is the correct one. Since the breeder has used the spellings Xebec and Zebec for the same dog, it is impossible to be certain.

As pedigrees of the later Windsprite dogs have been either incomplete or unavailable, it is unknown how these later additions may or may not be related. It is probably safe to assume that they too are of precisely the same foundation family.

1) ALL of the families based on Longhaired Whippet breeding stock collapse within a very few generations to an incredibly inbred family group. All of the Windsprite Longhaired Whippets in the Silken Windhound pedigrees may, and probably do, trace in direct female descent to the Longhaired Whippet Windsprite Brocade, a daughter of the Whippet, Eng. & Am. Ch.Hillgarth Shot Silk. It might therefore be more accurate to group all families from these lines as the L (Longhaired) family. If we accept the validity of this premise, it would be accurate to assert that the Silken Windhound breeding prior to 2000 is actually based on only *4 founding broodmatrons: 2 whippets (both of whom carried a recessive gene for long hair) and 2 Borzoi. (*see Note 3)

2) I have no information on how closely related the Borzoi families in our Silkens may be, though all Borzoi are thought to go to just a very few male lines within the last century. The diversity of Borzoi phenotype gives an idea that possibly there is also some amount of desirable genetic variation. The Silken Windhound currently exceeds the Borzoi model in having a very diverse phenotype, which gives an impression that the corresponding genotype may also be similarly varied.

3) Through most of the 1990's, the Kristull Silken breeding programme was based around producing beautiful, sound and well-structured, healthy, and sweet dogs for personal enjoyment and to sell as lovely, healthy pets. Only a very few of the finest individuals were used for breeding, and there was really no need for an "extensive genepool." However, the growing popularity of the line culminated in the formation of the ISWS, resulting in the decision to become a recognised breed. Therefore further founding members have been brought into the breed,with the same strict attention to excellent structure, health and temperament.

4) Current theories of population genetics tell us that the maintenance of genetic diversity is the single most important factor in preserving the health and viability of purebred captive and companion animals. Thus, when the founding population is very small or excessive inbreeding without compatible culling technique has resulted in a loss of desired traits, it is preferable to have a means to allow tested and proven crosses from outside the studbook registry to expand the genepool. However, it is the viewpoint of the author that artificial (human) selection of only the finest breeding stock, in terms of correct structure, movement, intelligence and trainability, temperament, performance ability, health, longevity, and reproductive ability, is at least equally important

Commentary on whether or not Longhaired Whippets are "Purebred" Whippets

This subject actually is not relevant to Silken Windhound breeding, except as a point of interest for those of us intriqued by the remote ancestry of our dogs.

Yes, Longhaired Whippets might indeed all be purebred Whippets. Anyone with a genuine working knowlege of genetics will agree with the fact that this a possibility. Either the "dormant" recessive theory or a recent mutation event (or both) may be responsible for the appearance of long coats in Whippets. Evidence for this: Francie Stull currently owns a purebred Whippet, Kridoni's Bengala, that carries the recessive trait for long (and lush!) coats.

As to whether or not Mr. Wheelers' Windsprite dogs are also purebred Whippets, there are many questions. We have already seen that long coat is no reason to discount pure breeding. Along with the long coats, people like to point to the numbers of tan pointed (at) dogs that have come from his bloodlines as a sign of crossing from other breeds, as tan point is either rare or non-existant in Whippets. However, it is again quite possible that a mutation has occurred and a high frequency of expression is easily explained by the level of inbreeding in the Windsprite breeding programme. Culling tan point offspring, but not the bloodlines producing it, will not get rid of the trait (just as culling longhaired Whippets but not the lines producing it, did not remove the longhaired trait from the Whippet genepool).

For people who do not believe that frequent mutations are a reality, please read the section called GENETIC EFFECTS OF DOMESTICATION from Behavioral Genetics and Animal Science by Dr. Temple Grandin and Mark J. Deesing at http://grandin.com/references/genetics.html to see how quickly numerous multations have occurred in domestic fox breeding.

OTOH, yes, it IS known that Mr. Wheeler kept a lovely pair of Borzoi, including a small female and a black and tan male at the same time he was promoting his longhaired Whippets. COULD one or both of these Borzoi be behind some of the Windsprite longhaired Whippets? To be perfectly honest, any experienced animal breeder knows that where instinct - especially sex - is involved, "where there is a will there is a way" and animals often make breedings their owners never intended... and don't always know about. However, without DNA evidence there is no reason to conclude that there is, or is not, Borzoi or any other breed in the heritage of the Windsprite longhaired Whippets.