| Silken Windhound | |||||||||
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| Other names | Silken, Windhound | ||||||||
| Origin | United States | ||||||||
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| Dog ( domestic dog ) | |||||||||
The Silken Windhound is an American breed of sighthound. Like most sighthounds, Silkens are noted coursers.
| Silken Windhound | |||||||||
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| Other names | Silken, Windhound | ||||||||
| Origin | United States | ||||||||
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| Dog ( domestic dog ) | |||||||||
The Silken Windhound is an American breed of sighthound. Like most sighthounds, Silkens are noted coursers.
Silken Windhounds are graceful, small- to medium-sized sighthounds with silky coats of middling length. Silken coat colors can range from white to black, with brilliant brindles and solid red in between. They can be spotted, tuxedo-marked or solid-colored.
Silken Windhounds are affectionate and playful, and are good dogs for families with children. Due to their friendliness, they are not good guard dogs but are easily housebroken and can be trained to live with smaller household pets. Silkens particularly like agility, therapy, flyball, and obedience. [ citation needed ]
Silken Windhounds are intelligent and easily trained using rewards and affection in short, positive sessions. They will work eagerly and form strong relationships with their owners if treated well. Like many sighthounds, Silken Windhounds can slip out of buckle collars, so most owners favor semi-slip collars.
Silken Windhounds typically live into their middle to late teens[ citation needed ]. Bone and joint ailments like hip dysplasia and bloat are rare. Some individual Silken Windhounds are sensitive to ivermectin and related drugs; a simple test is now available to find whether a dog carries a defective MDR1, a multi-drug resistance gene. [2] Some owners report cases of cryptorchidism, umbilical hernia, and lotus syndrome, plus deafness and cataracts in old age.
Silken Windhounds were founded and developed in Austin, Texas by Francie Stull, a successful breeder of show and performance American Kennel Club Borzoi and Deerhounds, using her favored Borzoi and Lurcher bloodlines. The first Silken Windhound litter was whelped in 1985 and a breed club, the International Silken Windhound Society, was formed in 1999. In early 2011, Silken Windhounds were recognized by the United Kennel Club. Silkens are now in 24 countries as well.
Silken Windhounds participate in performance sports and showings worldwide, including the NAKC, IABCA, and NCA, as part of the hound group. In Slovenia, Silkens are an accepted part of the Slovenian Kennel Club, member of the FCI, also in the hound group. Silken Windhounds also participate in sighthound performance sports, competing alongside other sighthounds in Finnish lure coursing and straight racing events. The ISWS has established straight and oval track racing programs that enable Silkens to compete and win points towards performance titles.
In late 2009, Silken Windhounds were accepted as a Limited Stakes breed in the ASFA. Over forty dogs competed in ASFA limited stakes in their first month of acceptance.
In late 2010, Silken Windhounds were accepted as a breed in NOFCA, the National Open Field Coursing Association, and can participate in open field events. On March 18, 2011, Silken Windhounds were accepted into the United Kennel Club. [3]
The Afghan Hound is a hound distinguished by its thick, fine, silky coat, and a tail with a ring curl at the end. The breed originates in the cold mountains of Afghanistan. Its local name is Sag-e Tāzī or Tāžī Spay. Other names for this breed are Tāzī, Balkh Hound, Baluchi Hound, and Barakzai Hound.
The Azawakh is a breed of dog from West Africa. With ancient origins, it is raised throughout the Sahelian zone of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. This region includes the Azawagh Valley for which the breed is named. While commonly associated with the nomadic Tuareg people, they are also bred and owned by other ethnic groups such as the Peulh, Bella, and Hausa. The Azawakh is more related to the Sloughi than it is to the Saluki.
The Borzoi or Russian Hunting Sighthound is a Russian breed of hunting dog of sighthound type. It was formerly used for wolf hunting, and until 1936 was known as the Russian Wolfhound.
The EnglishGreyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurgence in popularity as a family pet.
The Ibizan Hound is a lean, agile dog of the hound family. There are two hair types of the breed: smooth and wire. The more commonly seen type is the smooth. Some consider there to be a third type, long, but the longhair is most likely a variation of the wire.
The Irish Wolfhound is a breed of large sighthound and one of the largest of all breeds of dog. The modern breed was developed in the late 19th century by G.A. Graham, whose aim was to recreate the extinct Irish wolfhounds of Ireland. Classified by recent genetic research into the Sighthound United Kingdom Rural Clade, the breed is used by coursing hunters who have prized it for its ability to dispatch game caught by other, swifter sighthounds. In 1902, the Irish Wolfhound was declared the regimental mascot of the Irish Guards.
The Saluki is a standardised breed developed from sighthounds – dogs that hunt primarily by sight rather than strong scent – that was once used by nomadic tribes to run down game animals. The dog was originally bred in the Arabian Peninsula. The modern breed is typically deep-chested and long-legged, and similar dogs appear in medieval and ancient art. The breed is most closely related to the Afghan hound, a basal breed that predates the emergence of modern breeds in the 19th century, and the Saluki has been purebred both in the Middle East, including by royalty, since at least that era, and in the West since the 1840s, though as a free-breeding landrace, similar dogs are common as feral animals in the Middle East. A related standardised breed is the north African Sloughi.
Sighthounds, also called gazehounds, are a type of dog, hounds that hunt primarily by sight and speed rather than by scent and endurance as scent hounds do.
The Scottish Deerhound, or simply the Deerhound, is a Scottish breed of large sighthound, once bred to hunt the red deer by coursing. In outward appearance it is similar to the Greyhound, but larger and more heavily boned, with a rough coat. It is closely related to the Irish Wolfhound and was the principal contributor to that breed when it was re-created at the end of the nineteenth century.
The Sloughi, or Arabian Greyhound, is an ancient breed of domesticated dog, specifically a member of the sighthound family. It originates from North Africa and is found in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Libya.
The whippet is a British breed of medium-sized dog, of the sighthound type, related to the larger greyhound and the smaller Italian greyhound. Apart from the differences in height, the whippet closely resembles these two breeds; it has sometimes been described as "the poor man's greyhound". It is kept as a companion dog, for competitive showing, for amateur racing as well as lure coursing. It has the highest running-speed of any breed in its weight and size range, and may have the fastest idle-to-running acceleration of any dog.
A hound is a type of hunting dog used by hunters to track or chase prey.
Lure coursing is a sport for dogs that involves chasing a mechanically operated lure. Competition is typically limited to dogs of purebred sighthound breeds. The AKC has a pass/fail trial for all breeds called the Coursing Ability Test (CAT) and a timed 100 yard dash called Fast CAT where the dog's speed is converted to points.
The Rough Collie is a long-coated dog breed of medium to large size that, in its original form, was a type of collie used and bred for herding sheep in Scotland. More recent breeding has focused on the Collie as a show dog, and also companion. The breed specifications call for a distinctive long narrow tapered snout and tipped (semiprick) ears, so some dogs have their ears taped when young. Rough Collies generally come in shades of sable and white, blue merle, tri-coloured, and colour-headed white.
A lurcher is a crossbred dog resulting from mating a greyhound or other sighthound with a dog of another type such as a herding dog or a terrier. The lurcher was for hundreds of years strongly associated with poaching; in modern times, it is kept as a hunting dog or companion dog.
The Kanni (கன்னி), meaning pure, is a rare indigenous South Indian sighthound breed of dog found in the state of Tamil Nadu. Their native breeding tract is located around villages in the Tirunelveli, Virudhunagar and Thoothukudi districts. The breed is used mainly for coursing. "Kanni" refers to the black and tan and black and sable varieties, while the solid-coloured variety is known as the Chippiparai. However, some experts claim that the Kanni and the Chippiparai are distinct breeds.
The Magyar agár (MA) is a dog breed. It is a type of sighthound originating in Hungary and lands that previously belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is used for hunting and coursing, and is also kept as a companion.
The Rampur Greyhound is a breed of sighthound native to the Rampur region of Northern India, which lies between Delhi and Bareilly. It is believed the Rampur Greyhound descends from early Afghan Hounds, with their present-day appearance due to extensive crosses to the Greyhound in the 19th century to improve the breed's speed. The Rampur Greyhound is a shorthaired, powerfully built sighthound that resembles the Sloughi in appearance. It is rarely seen outside of its native land where it is retained as a coursing dog and is rarely kept as a companion.
The Old Croatian Sighthound, also known as the Old Bosnian Sighthound, is an extinct breed of sighthound from the Balkan countries of Bosnia–Herzegovina and Croatia.
The American Staghound, referred to by various names including the Cold-Blooded Greyhound, the Longdog of the Prairie and the American Lurcher, is a crossbreed of various sighthounds. It has been bred in the United States from the 19th century where it is used for hunting.