Amethyst Silken Windhounds

12/16/2024

The Stormlight Archive litter are 10 days old! 💜

12/07/2024

Thursday was a bit of a harrowing ordeal with 4 puppies born in the whelping box at home, a 5th in the back of the sprinter on the way to the emergency vet, and 2 via c section at the emergency vet, but they are all healthy and gaining weight and Emma is a wonderful mother and seemingly unbothered by the surgery! (She also has a pain block that should last through Monday evening and pain meds on board.)

We got home at two minutes after midnight on the day the fifth book was released, and the sire is Storm, so presenting the Stormlight Archive litter! They are going to all be spoken for by the time I shuffle through applications. I have 4 chosen homes besides myself since I was planning on a litter of 5 puppies based on the ultrasound and I decided to wait until after they were here safely and I've had a chance to rest and just enjoy them before I do any further work not directly related to them and Emma's immediate care!

12/04/2024

Emma's maternity shoot 😆

11/28/2024

Emma is expecting 7!! I'm so excited and can't wait for them to arrive 💜

11/09/2024

Emma is expecting 5 puppies! Huge thanks to our friend Aeracura Silken Windhounds for letting Storm's PNW visit extend a little longer for this to be possible 💜 This litter is due December 4th and all puppies are spoken for!

09/28/2024

Breeding very soon and likely going to have a small litter but hopefully at least one perfect puppy! 💜 Both parents tested above CHIC and Emma at 3.5 years old has two full rounds of health testing!

09/24/2024

Some candids of my ladies at the Canadian Specialty 💜 Huge thanks to Pauline Ng for taking candids so I could focus on showing 🙌

09/19/2024

Here are our win photos from this past weekend's lovely Fall Frolic Canadian Specialty in Airdrie! I lost count of class placements, but Clover was in hard consideration for Winners B #&@% in the second show where Fae went Altered Best of Opposite and Minx and Emma went Best Brace. Minx was also double Best Brood Bitch, but unfortunately that was without competition due to absences! We had an amazing time and are so grateful for all the work put into this event by Alex and her elves and so thankful to our the friends who helped us 🙌

09/10/2024

All of Emma's health testing from last month has come back so she's had two rounds and the last thing she needs is a repeat holter which I'll be doing as soon as we get back from the Canadian Specialty!
https://ofa.org/advanced-search/?appnum=2379027

08/29/2024

This is for silken friends and potential puppy people! If I don't know you yet and you want to come please fill out an application and/or reach out to me via email or the silken discord server! I may do zoom calls with some applicants first. I'll be sending out replies to applications and emails I've gotten in the last few months this week - I know I'm terrible about replying but life has been busy and the amount is overwhelming for a tiny breeder.
The silken discord server is a great place to be for anyone, and we have quite a few PNW people on the server: http://silkendiscord.com/

07/31/2024

Today is the Winxles 4th birthday!! I don't know how time works, this seems impossible! Happiest of Birthdays to my OG litter in all their amazing homes!! 🥳💜 Featuring Clover, of course, who has been mine from almost the moment she was born!

07/01/2024

NWFest is over and Amethyst got some nice wins! In show 1 Minx was best opposite veteran and Clover was reserve winners bitch for her ISWS major! In show 2 Fae was altered winner's bitch and altered best opposite s*x for her altered ISWS major! Emma and Minx were best brace in both shows with no competition 😆 This means all 3 of my Amethyst kiddos that live with me have their ISWS majors 🥹

Dresden placed in his class in the second show with Maren! Lux placed in both her hugely competitive 12-18 month classes with Cali, and I showed Bo in both his but he is max teenage doof right now and did not place, but did stay happy in the ring and not p*e on anything and that's a big win with a teenage boy! 🤣

Finley, Zhara and Liv represented us on the lure coursing and straight racing field 💜

05/30/2024

Zhara did so great at Versatility Weekend!! Third place in all 3 events leading her to come in 2nd overall!

Photos courtesy Pauline Ng and scoring courtesy Beth Levine.

05/27/2024

Yesterday Lux and Emma were down in Longview at the UKC show and Lux was Best Female in show 2 and Emma was reserve best female in both shows!

Meanwhile Emma's littermate Zhara is at Versatility weekend and was Best Opposite S*x and in the top 5 silkens in straight racing yesterday, and was third place and Best Opposite S*x in oval racing today!

05/22/2024

It's a great weekend to meet silkens in the PNW! I'll be at this UKC show in Longview with Emma on Saturday, and other people will be at Versatility weekend in Roy WA all 3 days! (I may stop by Roy on Monday to hang out, but I don't have anyone who is ready to run in ASFA.)

UKC: https://www.ukcdogs.com/event/cascade-american-pit-bull-terrier-club-may-25-2024?calendar_id=3&view=month&offset=0

Versatility: https://www.asfaregion1.com/calendar/?loxi_pathname=%2Fpnwr0524-693

Calendar Premium lists for lure coursing events are generally available around a month before the event, give or take a week or two. Racing flyers are generally available one to two weeks before the event.If you have questions about specific events listed on the calendar, please contact the event se...

05/15/2024

Someone else stole my puppy photos to advertise with 💀 This is my third litter who are 13 months old and happily in homes!

05/10/2024

Emma is my next momma dog. She's from Minx's second litter and turned 3 in April. She will likely be bred in late October or early November this year, for puppies born in approximately early January and going to homes in April 2025. I was hoping her heats would work out to give me a summer litter next year, but she just finished her third heat so now I have an actual idea of her normal intervals between and know that it's either a spring 2024 go home or an end of year rainy winter 2024/beginning of 2025 go home. Ideally I would prefer to wait until she turned 4 to breed to give health issues even more time to pop up and a longer generational interval. However it is absolutely worth the trade off to send puppies home in the PNW in April instead of a wet and cold December or January!

Emma has many things going for her, but also some things that are not ideal, so I'd like to go over all the factors as well as my thought process so it's all publicly available. Breeding is an art and a science and, most especially, a big roll of the genetic dice, and while I do all I can to give puppies the best start in life, not everything is in my control.

In terms of what's going for her, first, Emma has a lovely temperament. She's fine with strange dogs, plays with dogs she knows, loves humans, is food motivated and biddable. Inside she's a big cuddler, a good eater, and zero drama. Our friend and dog sitter has said she was a bit more stressed than the others at their house and was a little squirrely and didn't want to go outside with everyone, but settled and cuddled in the house. She's been on road trips and vacations with us and been her normal, cuddly, attention seeking self. She's pretty chill and not as "spicy" (goofy, ridiculous) as her sister Fae, but still has personality.

Second, I think she is beautifully built and moves really nicely. She was a standout at her first Silkenfest in 2021 at 6 months old winning a Best Opposite Puppy in the regular show and getting a shout out from the judge in Sweepstakes the day before that she wished there was a third prize to give because Emma would have gotten it. Emma then won Winners Bitch at Boofest in 2022 at 18 months old over lots of competition including her mother. She then went on to be Best of Opposite S*x in that show. Getting the ISWS major by a year and a half old is huge, since that's the hardest part of an ISWS Championship.

The first downside is that Emma is from a litter of four and one has environmental allergies (Fae that is here with us chews her feet seasonally and has been managed with cytopoint) and another, Zhara, was just diagnosed with IBD. There are several relatives on her dad's side with allergies and some with other issues, including one without a diagnosis who is fine on a hydrolyzed protein diet, which is actually how Zhara's owner discovered that she should try that diet which helped Zee and lead to the testing to pin down IBD. Solely based on this, if silkens were a more populous breed, I wouldn't be breeding Emma, but silkens are a rare breed with a small gene pool and despite her sisters' issues, I think she's worth breeding. Minx, her mother, has produced a dog with Addison's in her first litter, and a dog with PRAA in her third litter, but no one from either of her other litters has allergies at this point in time.

Second, she's from a project line in silkens that has many, many, many descendents and will be hard to avoid in years to come. This actually gives me the most anxiety. The only saving grace is that she's not down from the most popular dam in that project. As a breeder I try to do what's best for the breed as a whole, not just what's best for me, and this is the thing I've agonized over the most while lots of other breeders don't even register it as an issue or anything worth consideration.

As you can tell, I've wracked my brain and argued with myself tons about this decision, but I think her personal merits overcome her pedigree downsides!