Silken Windhounds Arrive – What Took Them So Long?

Click here to read the complete article
226 – June, 2026

By Caroline Coile

Last month, AKC announced that Silken Windhounds was one of three new breeds admitted into their FSS. Unlike many of the newer AKC admissions, Silkens are neither newly created nor low-entry bound. Nor are they a breed with ancient origins. For some, their admission into the AKC is a celebratory occasion they often doubted would ever come. For others, it remains blasphemy.

To understand why, you have to go back to the 1970s and ‘80s, when Whippet fancier Walter Wheeler debuted what he considered a long-lost longhaired variant of the breed. To say that his unveiling was met with animosity, if not outright accusations of crossbreeding, would be a generous understatement.

There was no internet then, no Facebook. Instead, the various sighthound magazines, The Sighthound and The Gazehound, were host to pages and pages of some of the most vehement and venomous letters ever printed therein, mostly against these apparent aberrations. And at the eye of the storm was Wheeler, who even had the audacity to publish ads with the “Longhaired Whippets.”

Walter Wheeler bred several breeds of dogs, including Shelties, before settling on Whippets in 1958. His “Windsprite” Whippets weren’t huge winners, but they were competitive, finishing several champions.

Click here to read the complete article
226 – June, 2026

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=360944

Posted by AnthonyA on Jun 24 2026. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.