California Silken Windhounds history

Silken Windhounds of California - Events-History-Activities-Breeders of the Silken Windhound

Silken Windhounds of California

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HISTORY I REGIONAL SPECIALTIES I RESCUEI CHAMPIONS

Silken Windhounds of California About - Silken History in California

The first Silken Windhound west of Texas made it out to California in late 1999,
She was from Kristull Ranch, and is a brindle beauty named Kristull Azure, call name Addy .
Ron Russel took Addy to be trained as a Service dog, and she still performs admirably in that capacity.

Addy

The Second Silken Windhound to come out to California was the foundation for
the first Silken Windhound kennel in California. Her name was Kristull Talisman of Sheba,
and she was the foundation bitch and dam of the first litter of Silkens in California for

Talisman Hounds

Sheba

One of the first dogs in California to be trained to detect cancer in humans through a
research project funded by the Pine Street Clinic in Marin County, Ca was " Cat " .
She was trained by her owners Kirk and Shelley Turner , who are professional dog trainers who
trained all the dogs for this research project. While Cat was not part of the formal project, she has been
on TV in South Africa, and on a cancer detection demo tape demonstrating her talent.

Cat

In 2001and 2002, the Silken Windhounds of California began having annual gatherings and calling them Boofest, it was a time where we could all get together and celebrate our rapidly growing breed in California. The first Boofest, only 15 Silkens, who were the whole of the Northern California Silken Windhound population, were in attendence.

2002

Our first official Western Regional Specialty show, Boofest, the first independent Specialty shows held outside of the Silken Windhound Nationals ,began being held in Oct of 2003 with judge Kris Brolin of Brolin's Borzoi judging.

Abby 2003

In 2004 other "family" gathering was held, showcasing the ever-growing family of Silkens in California.

Our second Western Regional Specialty show was held in 2005 with Dennis Colbath of Zayante Borzoi judging.

Best of breed , Winners Bitch, and Best Puppy in Show , was a California born Silken, "Sony", Talisman's Scythian Huntress

Connor 2004

BISS BPIS Winner , Sony , 2005

BISS Winner , Sazi , 2007

The Silken Windhounds here in California were also the first involved in studies geared towards unlocking the secrets of the dog genome in two university research projects. The WSU and UC Davis study on the Breed Distribution of the Canine MDR1-1 Gene , which was the feature story in the Aug 2004 edition of the Proceedings of the National Acadamy of Sciences, ( Cover Silken is Kristull Iambic Pentameter, Caliban. The entire breed is also now involved with the UC Davis VGL research project to use all Silken Windhound DNA in the world to help decode the dog genome, in a project called the

Silken Windhound Genome Project

Silken pictured is Caliban

In 2005, four California Silken Windhounds were featured, along with Silkens from around the world, in an article in "Our Dogs" UK, which was released during the Crufts Dog show.

Strider and Kyra of Elessar Hounds

The first official ISWS Racing programs were run in California in conjunction
with the Borzoi Rescue of Northern California's LGRA club under the direction of Sally Barron, Barron's Borzoi.

The very first dog to get his performance title the SRC in the breed was Allagante Lunar Talisman ," Gideon ", and
the second Silken in the breed to get her performance title was Allagante Evening Wind, " Shadow " . Both are California dogs !
They are now also joined by Tangaloor Eleanor of Rubia " Ella " SRC, and Gideon and Cinders daughter, Talisman of
Tarazed Scirocco "Tara", the first SRC from and SRC , and " Brewer " Gryffyn's Strange Brew , and California born and co owned Talisman's Ursa Major " Teddy" , who at 15 months, is the youngest SRC ever in the breed ! There are many more California Silkens who are very close to their
Titles now!

Gideon , in the fall of 07, also became the first Silken ever to get the second leg of the Straight Racing Championship, the SRCX!

The California Race Gallery

Gideon

Shadow

Ella

Tara

Brewer

Teddy

In 2006 the Silken Windhounds of California started hosting it's own Specialty Race meets, providing opprotunities for very large entries of Silkens, and racing practice for other breeds. These were the first Silken only Specialty race meets for Silken Windhounds outside of the Nationals.

Dave Mills pic Gallery of Nov 2006 meet

Dave Mills pic Gallery of March 2007 meet

Freya , Gideon , Sazi, and Ella

Two California dogs were also featured on the Sighthound page of Chronicle Book's

Dogs 24/7 . These two dogs were Tangaloor Delenn "Addie" and Gentle Winds Cinnabar

"Cinnabar " who's webpages can be found at

Rubia Hounds

Addie and Cinnabar

In 2006, the Silken Windhounds of California hosted our first lecture event, featuring two days of instruction on Canine Structure and Movement by Ed Gilbert, author of

K9 Structure and Anatomy

as well as handling and grooming instruction by Pat Gilbert.

Ed and Rex

Racing California Sillken Windhounds, along with other Silkens from around the world, were also featured in the first Silken Windhound article in Volume three, issue one of the

Performance Sighthound Journal

L to R Tara Brewer Gideon Shadow pic by

Dave Mills

In Mid 07, the first four California Silken Windhounds were Coursing Instinct Certified, CIC, running with the Irish Wolfhound club, with the rules of the brand new International Silken Windhounds Society Coursing program.
The new CIC dogs were SRC, "Shadow " Rarities and IABCA Int Ch Allagante Evening Wind SRC CIC , " Freya " Rarities Int Ch Rubia's Electric Apogee CIC, "Sazii" ISWS , Rarities, IABCA Int Ch, Talisman's Anasazi Sunrise CIC , and SRC, " Gideon " IABCA Int Ch Allagante Lunar Talisman SRC CIC SRCX .

Freya

Sazi

2007 Califonia - bred Silken , Talisman of Electra Sarafias , " Ella ", wins Best in Specialty Show in the large Silken Specialty held in Finland ! Ella was shown to her win by her owner Salla Klemetti of Kennel

Sarafias

Ella

August 2007, California Silkens are also featured on three pages in the large all dog breed reference book by

Liz Palika ,

The Howell Book of Dogs

Loki

On September 2007, California Silkens from Rubia Hounds are also featured in

POSITIVE TRAINING FOR SHOW DOGS - BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP FOR SUCCESS ,

by Vicki Ronchette

Dora

In the Spring of 2008 , more California dogs added performance titles to their names, including ISWS, Rarities Int Ch Rubia's Sol Invictus CIC " Rex " , IABCA JuA Ch Scirocco's Blue Djinn CIC CQ " Djinn ", and his Mom Tara.

We also got our first California ISWS performance and conformation Ch, ISWS, Rarities, and IABCA Int Ch Talisman's Anasazi Sunrise SRC CIC " Sazi ", our second ISWS Dual Ch, ISWS, Rarities, and IABCA Int Ch Gryffyn's Strange Brew SRC CIC "Brewer ", and our third ISWS dual Ch, ISWS, Rarities, and IABCA Int Ch Talisman of Tarazed Scirocco SRC CIC CQ "Tara ."

As of the spring of 08, three of the first five ISWS Dual Champions in history ( ISWS performance and show titles) are California dogs!