EWhippetzine © 2007
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7. What about the breed improvements in the last 10-15 years? Any breed qualities that we have lost in the same period?
I feel the breed has made vast improvement in front fill and front movement. Dogs are better set under and have more fluid side gait. Coming from Afghans, side movement was very important to me. Aesthetically, I loved the look of the Whippets at the shows back in the Mid-West, but many of them hackneyed around the ring;
you seldom see that these days. That being said, the rest, unfortunately, is racing downhill. Top lines and underlines are disappearing. Breeders are choosing puppies based on the longer and flatter the better with rear angulation to match. Proper top lines are being viewed as short and stuffy. The more breeders and judges see these Whippets as the norm, the more difficult it is to keep classic Whippet shape in our minds. Heads are getting longer and narrower with accompanying smaller eyes. I recently sought opinions of a dog I admire with a classic head and huge eye. What I mostly heard back was big eye but ugly head. Do we want Whippets or Borzoi? Extreme seems to be the name of the game, despite what the Standard has to say. Ear sets are getting lower and lower with incorrect bells. I am amazed at head studies I see advertised in magazines, even by established
6. Is there a dog or bitch from another country that you feel is an outstanding representative of the breed? Who? Why?
I feel several breeders in the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, and Finland are doing an excellent job of interpreting the Whippet Standard. Having never traveled to these countries (yet), I can not name particular dogs. Overall, from photos and imported puppies, I see proper Whippet S curves which seem to be more the norm than the exception. These breeders also seem to have preserved the beautiful low hocks which have all but disappeared on this continent. It is comforting for me to know that if we ever completely loose the classic Whippet type here, it is still alive and well in other parts of the world where we can access it.
I feel several breeders in the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, and Finland are doing an excellent job of interpreting the Whippet Standard. Having never traveled to these countries (yet), I can not name particular dogs. Overall, from photos and imported puppies, I see proper Whippet S curves which seem to be more the norm than the exception. These breeders also seem to have preserved the beautiful low hocks which have all but disappeared on this continent. It is comforting for me to know that if we ever completely loose the classic Whippet type here, it is still alive and well in other parts of the world where we can access it.
breeders. Please, you are just telling us that you have no idea of what a correct ear should look like. Rears are becoming overdone and cannot keep up with sight hound fronts. More and more, I am seeing what I call helicopter landing pads. By this I mean a huge elevated pad of muscle behind the withers with an accompanying dip behind this muscle pad. Showmanship and baiting reign supreme and it is almost impossible to win without it. Years ago a few breeders wrote articles about how Whippets are not Dobermans and should not be baited as such; judges just need to see that the ears are correct. At the time (and still do), I disagreed with this idea as it is a dog show, and quite frankly a Whippet can hide its virtues if it is not showing them off by looking at attention as if they spotted the rabbit. But things
Daniel Lockhart
with 4 generations
of Saxon Shore
“Kelsey”
“Tonya”
“Jason”
“Zinger”
with 4 generations
of Saxon Shore
“Kelsey”
“Tonya”
“Jason”
“Zinger”