You never know exactly when a female whippet is going to come into season, so there are occasionally scheduling problems. We expected Diamond to be ready to breed in August. We waited. And waited. And waited. In October, she finally decided that it was time. And sure enough, the weekend that the moment would be right, Yvonne was going to be in Delaware. Things were not looking so good for this long-planned litter until she asked if we just wanted to pick Arthur up and bring him home with us for the duration. That's what we did, and we got to spend a whole week with this delightful boy, learning that not only is he affectionate, but he's well-mannered, calm, and very secure. Usually when we bring a strange whippet into our home, for boarding or rescue or any other reason, the first day or two are hard on him. He's nervous and upset and wondering what's going on, sometimes whining at the door and breaking my heart with that soulful look all whippets do so well.

Not Arthur. He walked in, checked out the kitchen, drank a little water, selected a stuffy from the toy box, and hopped up on the couch. No accidents in the house, no destructiveness, no nerves. Yvonne had warned us that he didn't like to be crated, so we didn't even try. He just stayed loose in the house when we left for any reason and that worked out just fine. He's apparently somewhat claustrophobic -- even crating him in the car makes him very, very nervous, and as a result, he doesn't like car rides -- but he definitely has no separation anxiety. He was perfectly happy sleeping downstairs by himself when we went to bed at night. He prefers to be with people and would occasionally scratch at the door when he was on the "wrong" side of it and could see us outside through the window, but there was none of the distress you see in a dog who cannot be left alone.

Towards the end of his week with us, he became a little possessive about his toys and didn't want to share with the other dogs (Yvonne had warned us about that!) but he wasn't nasty about it. Just gave a warning bark when he didn't want to be bothered. We didn't have any problems taking his toys or food away, but he wasn't going to put up with other whippets doing it!

Arthur is nine years old and has no sign of heart disease -- mitral valve disease seems to be an increasingly common problem in whippets. He was echocardiogrammed at the first of August and checked clear by a licensed cardiologist at the Virginia Tech vet school. He fits our criteria for a stud dog because of his health, temperament, and his age -- we only breed to older stud dogs because we want to be sure no late-onset health problems show up. Finally, he is not closely related to Diamond. The inbreeding coefficient for this breeding is 7.4%, well within our requirements.

Most breeders linebreed -- use dogs that share ancestors in the first few generations -- but we prefer to see no common ancestors for four or five generations. Though this approach is less consistent in producing dogs of a certain "type," it is the healthiest way to breed, as there is less chance that the parents will both have genes for the same hereditary diseases.