Tell me about WINDHOUNDS

[starcastle]

Breeders

How does one fine a good breeder?

Check out the list of breeders at the International Silken Windhound Society.
http://www.silkenwindhounds.org/breeders.html

Visit their sites (if they have one) and try to make a decision of your own.
So far we don't have any bad apples. But there are some breeders who know a lot more about the breed than others, simply because they have been involved in Silkens for 10 years or more

Join the Windhound group at Yahoo, the best resource about Silkens in the world. It was started in 1998 and the archives contain everything there is to know about Silken Windhounds

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/windhounds/

 

[Pintage]

One thing I've not yet gotten a feel for is the breeds' ability to be off leash. I love hiking in the woods, I spend a lot of time in parks and don't have many fenced in dog areas where I live. To date, it's not been a problem. How well do you feel your dogs fare off leash?

And what are they like as puppies? I can tell my husband "40 mph couch potato" but he may call me a liar once the puppy crazies come about. What about adolescence? How do you find they mature? And at what rate?

Lugia is awesome offleash! One time we were hiking in this open space and this low flying raptor brushed by her and she SPRINTED off after it. I started calling and calling her (thinking it was hopeless as she was already so far away) but then she did an about-face and started running back to me. I couldn't trust her offleash till she was about 8 or 9 months old or so.

Lugia was B-A-N-A-N-A-S as a puppy, but I don't know if that's characteristic of the breed. She actually needed a lot more activity/exercise than my Koolie puppy did... after her first season (12 months old) she mellowed out considerably, though. One good disc session daily and she's content to lay about the house sleeping for the rest of the day.