Whippets 101: Lesson 1 - "My Sighthound/Whippet Experience Counts!"
The Good the Bad & the Ugly: Don’t Consider a Whippet Before You Read This.
People discover the whippet breed for a variety of reasons… sometimes they know one personally or met one on a walk. Sometimes a whippet was recommended on an internet quiz. Or maybe it was a photo on Instagram.
As much as we love whippets, they are definitely not a good fit for everyone! So before you jump into the search for your next family member, be sure that the breed is right for you - read on for inconvenient truths and answers to many of our most frequently asked questions.
We hope you enjoy the first lesson in our Whippets 101 blog post series!
1 | My Sighthound/Whippet Experience Counts!
T H E S K I N N Y
Did you have a whippet growing up, or does your best friend have one? Super! Have you owned a purebred sighthound breed before? Also great!
INCONVENIENT TRUTHS
Sorry friends, but a Doberman is not a sighthound!
Yes, a beagle is a hound (closer!) but it is not a sighthound and does not share many key characteristics. The list of breeds classified as sighthounds in North America is very short (Whippets being most common) and all are rare: Borzoi, Afghan, Scottish Deerhound, Azawahk, Greyhound, Ibizan, Irish Wolfhound, Pharaoh Hound, Saluki, Sloughi.
You have (or had) a whippet-cross you say? Well… unless you actually saw the purebred whippet parent in person, there is a 0.1% chance that your wonderful pet actually contains whippet genes. They simply aren’t a common enough breed in North America.
“Many dogs marketed by all/mixed-breed rescue organizations as "Whippet Mixes" are in fact Pit Bull mixes. Just because a dog is brindle and white with a waistline and rose ears does not make it part whippet, and true whippet-cross dogs are very rare in North America. Rescue groups using the reputation of the relatively non-aggressive, non-reactive "Whippet" breed as a marketing tool to tag non-whippet mixes (comprised of very different mixtures of very different breed personalities) are misrepresenting the dogs they are attempting to place to the public.”
Is it a Whippet? Visit Whippet-Rescue.org for examples of crossbreds mislabeled as "Whippet Mixes".
And even if you do have a genuine partial-whippet, you cannot expect it to have the same characteristics as a purebred. That would be like your neighbor comparing his Labradoodle to the Siba the Standard Poodle! ;)
