History
The history of the Longhaired Whippet has not been without some controversy. In the 1970s, after several decades and breeding generations, an AKC Whippet breeder named Walter A. Wheeler Jr. went public with his successful breeding of a long coated variety of Whippets developed from both his own smooth coated (short haired) Whippets and those from other Whippet breeders that displayed observable evidence of carrying the longhair gene.
Mr. Wheeler claims that the long coat is the result of the expression of a recessive gene for long hair which is carried in some lines of smooth Whippets. Although some people continue to believe that Longhaired Whippets are derived solely from short haired Whippets, others believe that the long coat more likely came from cross-breeding with other longer-coated breeds such as the Borzoi or Shetland Sheepdog, both breeds that Mr. Wheeler owned. One reason for this alternative belief is that some Longhaired Whippets carry the recessive MDR1 allele and/or the recessive CEA allele, mutant genes found predominantly in herding breeds, but not in the smooth Whippet.
The breed origin controversy is mostly an academic one as all Whippets were originally developed by cross-breeding other dogs such as Greyhounds and Terriers. No breed is more "pure" than any other, but some breeds were developed earlier in human history than others. Another controversy stems from the use of the word "Whippet" in reference to the Longhaired Whippet. Some smooth Whippet breeders openly oppose including the word "Whippet" in the Longhaired Whippet's official breed name, although there are many other breeds who use names that are similar, such as "Greyhound" and "Italian Greyhound".
Some American Whippet breeders claim that the name Whippet should be reserved for only smooth Whippets, although a rough coated variety of Whippet was common in the early history of the breed as a racing dog in England and existed as late as the 1970s in the United States. The last of these rough coated Whippets were euthanized when the only remaining kennel owner/breeder passed away at that time. Since the gene for the rough coat (also sometimes called "wire coated" or "wire haired" ) is a dominant gene, the elimination of all these rough coated Whippets effectively eliminated the rough coat from the American Whippet gene pool.
Those who believe that the Longhaired Whippet developed directly from the expression of a rare recessive longer coat gene (an allele of the gene FGF5;) that is carried by smooth Whippets point out that there are a number of other breeds who have known recessive long coated varieties (e.g. German Shepherd Dog, Weimaraner, Dachshund, Chihuahua). However, scientific research published in 2006 clearly shows that the specific allele that confers the long coat is not present in any of the breeds "fixed" for short hair (e.g. Whippets, Greyhounds). This study did show that Greyhounds (and several other breeds fixed for short hair such as Beagles, Dobermans, Labradors) do sometimes carry one or two copies of a variant of the FGF5 allele (contains a small duplication in a non-conserved part of the coding region) but this variant allele (unlike the missense allele that confers the long hair) does not correlate with long hair. That is, dogs with two copies of this variant allele do still have short hair (1). Therefore, this study provides evidence that Greyhounds (one of the founding breeds for Whippets) do not carry a recessive allele for long hair.
The Longhaired Whippet has been confused with the Silken Windhound due to their similar appearance. The Longhaired Whippet is actually one of the founding breeds behind the Silken Windhound which was developed by Borzoi breeder Francie Stull. She crossed Longhaired Whippets from Walter Wheeler's breeding kennel with Borzoi to create the breed now known as the Silken Windhound. While the two breeds are related, the Silken Windhound tends to be larger and has a different head type.
Another name that is used for the Longhaired Whippet (especially in Europe) is the "Silken Windsprite". This was originally a nickname used by Francie Stull, for her Silken Windhounds. "Windsprite" was Walter Wheeler's AKC kennel name and is in the pedigrees of his Longhaired Whippets. The Silken Windsprite name is now used by some European breeders, especially in Germany, as a breed name for the Longhaired Whippets that they have imported from the U.S., but other Longhaired Whippet breeders in Europe have chosen to use the name Longhaired Whippet as their official breed name.
Read more about this topic: Longhaired Whippet
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