LH Whippet vs Silken vs Borderwhippet

[Raegan]

I've read some old threads and learned Silken Windhounds are small Borzoi, and Long Haired Whippets are... long haired Whippets. How do they compare to a Borderwhippet? I find them all extremely attractive dogs, and I've met a couple Whippets over the years that were just really cool dogs. Bigger and sturdier than I had imagined, and a lot of fun to play with.

How would they like being a trainer's dog? I love doing breed specific sports, but I don't think I could have a dog in my house and not do agility and obedience with it. Plus the half dozen other stuff we dabble around with, disc, joring, tricks... pretty much everything but flyball

 

[Keechak]

Forgive me my possible ignorance, but what always struck me as odd is the fact that long haired whippets and Silken Windhounds both have abnormally high percentage of their populations with the MDR1 mutation gene. A gene not known to occur in Whippets or Borzoi. I had always thought the Longhaired whippets were originally created thru a cross of collie and whippet and then bred back to whippet but now I am reading that, no, Longhaired Whippets are only 100% whippet.

 

[Raegan]

Forgive me my possible ignorance, but what always struck me as odd is the fact that long haired whippets and Silken Windhounds both have abnormally high percentage of their populations with the MDR1 mutation gene. A gene not known to occur in Whippets or Borzoi. I had always thought the Longhaired whippets were originally created thru a cross of collie and whippet and then bred back to whippet but now I am reading that, no, Longhaired Whippets are only 100% whippet.

ROFL, well, I've got Tollers, so, more little collie crosses isn't a bother to me :lol-sign:

 

[FG167]

How would they like being a trainer's dog? I love doing breed specific sports, but I don't think I could have a dog in my house and not do agility and obedience with it. Plus the half dozen other stuff we dabble around with, disc, joring, tricks... pretty much everything but flyball

I don't have experience with the others but a Borderwhippet would probably excel here.

 

[Laurelin]

The only borderwhippets I know are about 4 months old. They're flyball and coursing owners. The ones I know look and act like whippets much more than BCs. It'll be interesting to watch them grow. I would not have suspected they were part BC except I knew of the litter before meeting them.

One thing about the borderwhippets is I would think you couldn't run real AKC coursing (not sure about other orgs) since they'd have to be canine partners. If I went sighthound (very unlikely), I'd want to be able to run the real coursing vs be stuck with a CAT.

I know one silken who is a total doll and seriously one of the nicest dogs I've met. She is very cute and precious and learns tricks crazy fast. Loves to course. Does nosework. Did not like agility so much. The one LH whippet I've met is much smaller than the silken and even softer in temperament.

I feel like for performance sighthounds the best bet is a shorthaired sport bred whippet. There's several here mostly coursing and flyball. Fast fast fast. There's a young one training in the agility class after mine that is looking to shape up into a really nice agility dog too.

 

[StillandSilent]

Keep in mind that my whippets are rescues and (near as I can tell) half brothers, so that may affect my answers.

Gimmick. Soft is not a strong enough word for him. Think of a cashmere sweater knitted from the hair of a newborn uinicorn and lined with rabbit fur and you've hit the level of soft that he is. He can not handle much training, because he just shuts down at the thought of displeasing me. We tried two rounds of agility classes, before deciding that it wasn't for him. He learned quickly and knew all of his stuff, but the minute the pressure went on, he melted like ice cream. That said, he is a wonderful creature and the sweetest thing.

Glitch is the polar opposite. He is dying to get out there and conquer the world. He has not yet started agility due to his age, but judging by his general trainability and lack of fear when it comes to climbing/leaping, I think he'll do great.

It should be noted that Gimmick was 16 weeks when I brought him home and very poorly socialized. But I really think that his basic nature would have always been a bit odd and antisocial. Glitch was two days less then 8 weeks and spitfire from the get-go.

I've never done obedience with my dogs, but I have noticed that both of them do like to be lazy and a bit sloppy with their sits and downs. This is probably more due to me not being strict as a trainer then a breed thing, though.

We did have one Silken in Gimmick's agility class, the first I'd ever seen. She didn't seem terribly motivated to do anything. Nice dog, but she somehow didn't seem as graceful as either the whippets or a borzoi. Something very off about her run.

I've never met a borderwhippet, though if I could combine Glitch and Gambit to create one, I might take over the world.

 

[Shai]

Forgive me my possible ignorance, but what always struck me as odd is the fact that long haired whippets and Silken Windhounds both have abnormally high percentage of their populations with the MDR1 mutation gene. A gene not known to occur in Whippets or Borzoi. I had always thought the Longhaired whippets were originally created thru a cross of collie and whippet and then bred back to whippet but now I am reading that, no, Longhaired Whippets are only 100% whippet.

Sheltie, from what I understand, not collie. But your point holds.

 

[milos_mommy]

I only have experience with whippets (mainly shorthair) and all pets, not sport dogs.

The handful of whippets I've known have been very sensitive and soft. If I was looking for a sport dog, they wouldn't be my go-to, but if I decided they fit in my lifestyle otherwise then I'd definitely look for "harder" lines and a more emotionally "sturdy" pup.

They've all kind of melted into the floor and seemingly died of embarrassment any time they were corrected (even if it was just saying their name a bit louder than usual). My boss's whippet wouldn't look at me for three days any time I said anything like "hey!" To her for unwanted behavior (usually counter surfing). She wasn't outside the norm in what I've seen.

 

[Romy]

Long haired whippet history is super controversial. For one, there are several registries and a couple of the registries did outcross into sheltie later on. One of them with the original line maintains that they are pure whippet and only outcrosses to pure whippets.

The original LHW were produced by Walter Wheeler, who SWEARS he NEVER used shelties, just selectively bred whippets with more coat. Long hair is recessive, and there did used to be long haired whippets in the olden days so it's not out of the question.

The silken windhound is a combination of long haired whippet dogs and borzoi. I don't know WHICH long haired whippet dogs, if it was alleged pre-sheltie infusion or if the whole shebang started with sheltie crosses.

People can get kind of rabid about it.

 

[StillandSilent]

seemingly died of embarrassment any time they were corrected

That is my sweet Shrimp in a nutshell. It makes training less then fun for both of us.

 

[Paviche]

All of the Silken people that I know acknowledge the Sheltie ancestry in the LHW to the point where I know people who won't even say that Silkens were bred from Borzoi and LHWs, but Borzoi and "Whippet-based lurchers."