Silken Windhounds

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Our Mission

We are a new club, but we aren’t new to the breed.  The Silken Windhound Club of America is a breed club founded in the United States with the goal of getting AKC approval for the Silken Windhound Breed. We foster a culture of inclusiveness and positivity in our community by having a set of Principles that we refer back to. These are not rules or laws, but guidelines on how to make our club and our breed better. If you want to learn more about us or have questions, you can learn more by clicking About the Club button below where we have an FAQ.

Conformation

The UKC

Since 2011, the Silken Windhound has been fully accepted as part of the United Kennel Club. In addition to their conformation events, the breed also participates in other UKC events. This includes Obedience, Rally-Obedience, Agility, Lure Coursing, Barn Hunt, and Weight Pull. Many participating dogs carry multiple titles in those events, as well as having won numerous Best in Show and Reserve Best in show honors in conformation.

Expanding participation in the UKC has resulted in the Silken Windhound consistently being one of their top entered conformation breeds. Based just on the UKC’s published top ten numbers, the Silken Windhounds were the number 3 breed, all-breed in 2019, the number 2 breed, all-breeds in 2020, and the number 7 total breed, all breed in 2021.

 

Expanding participation in the UKC has resulted in the Silken Windhound consistently being one of their top entered conformation breeds. Based just on the UKC’s published top ten numbers, the Silken Windhounds were the number 3 breed, all-breed in 2019, the number 2 breed, all-breeds in 2020, and the number 7 total breed, all breed in 2021.

Regional Specialties and National Specialty shows

The first regional specialty show for the breed was held in Northern California in 2003. Specialty events have since grown nationally; with many regions participating and multiple clubs holding one or more events a year.
Although recent world events disrupted normal national schedules the breed still managed to host specialty events to showcase their hounds. Examples of such events are listed below.

These numbers are excluding sweepstakes entries, and only reflect unique dogs entered in the regular shows:

  • The Silken Windhounds of California (SWC) hold a Western regional specialty every year in October known as“Boofest”. In 2021, 94 dogs were entered into this popular specialty show.
  • The Silken Windhound Texas Tapestry is also held yearly and is hosted in the region that birthed the breed. In 2021, this specialty had 82 dogs showcased from people around the country.
  • The Midwest Silken Windhound Association’s (MSWA) “Ohio Classic” hosted 67 dogs in 2021.
  • Silken Windhounds for Endurance, Performance, & Training (SWEPT) had 51 participants in their “Pacific Northwest Fest” in 2019.
  • The East Coast Silken Windhound Club (ECSW) hosted a show with 54 dogs in 2021.
  • Fanciers in Colorado hosted “The Rocky Mountain Silken Showdown” in 2019. A total of 56 participants from around the country supported this specialty.

Our Nationals rotate around the country and are currently a nearly week-long event featuring a sweepstakes show, a regular conformation show, seminars, health testing, obedience, rally-obedience, straight racing, lure coursing, and oval track days. Due to Covid 19, the 2020 National Specialty was canceled, and the numbers for 2021 fluctuated off normal due to cancellations and rescheduling, but the last “non pandemic era” Nationals in 2019 hosted 137 individual dogs in the conformation show, and 155 in 2018. There have been 50 to 60 entries in sweeps.

Club Services

The Silken Windhound Club of America is located in the United States and will provide a number of services to our members, including:

Show Point Registration

We will be registering dogs to track show points for SWHCoA sponsored events.

Resources

We offer support for those who want to bring a Silken Windhound into their family and those who want to learn about responsible breeding practices

Community

We are an inclusive, fun environment, which encourages and helps each other to make a better club and better breed. We hold each other to high standards.

Research Projects

From nearly its inception, the Silken Windhound breed culture has been forward-thinking and science-embracing. Collaborative work with UC Davis’ Veterinary Genetics Laboratory and the University of Washington’s veterinary school was done to study the breed distribution of the MDR1-1 mutation. This study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and that information appeared in newspapers and television news globally.

We’ve also been involved with the University of Missouri Veterinary Oncology department doing a long-term study cataloging and typing cancer data for the breed. Thus far, no cancers that have been gene typed in the breed have been found to have a genetic link.