We trust you enjoy your visit and that you find our pictures and information of interest. You can read our detailed Puppy advise found on our Puppies page with various Resources & LINKS. Please sign our Guest Book and view the Picture ‘SETS’ or DOG SHOW PHOTOS – Pup Videos HERE – Whippet photos HERE and ** OUR NEW DOG SHOW PHOTOS SITE **
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Our original blue and black whippets ‘Monte’ Valdassa Visconte & ‘Vida’ Valdassa Viva Ibiza (above left) bred by Gian Zovi.

Include the preservation of loving nature and gentle character, as well as confident and outgoing temperament. The self-assured personality of whippets is paramount to us. An attentive upbringing and regular human interaction in the very early stages of a pup’s development is essential in conditioning a well balanced and social disposition.

Conformation, form and function, preserving true breed type and bloodlines, as well as developing personal favourite traits are all very important to us as responsible breeders, however we have chosen to undertake the challenging pursuit of breeding quality black and blue (known as “coloured” whippets) as well as solid fawn and white colours, as we find them quite captivating.

Often misunderstood, this ambitious undertaking is aimed at preserving and enhancing our current Australian coloured lines, using the very best dogs available to us, not just solid black & blue whippets. With the exception of a few dedicated breeders, we felt that these solid coloured lines had been neglected for decades, with most breeders favouring the parti-coloured bloodlines.

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We often hear about solid black whippets.

Personally, there is no inclination against “Parti” colouring on my part; it’s more the fact that we find these ‘pretty patterns’ to distract from the whippets’ innate beauty. Some breeders and Dog Judges seem to find them ‘glamorous’, but in our opinion, this ‘patchy colouring’ detracts from (our preference of) the elegant, flowing silhouette, found in a decent solid colour, especially a black or blue whippet.

As much as most enthusiasts of the breed, we admire a good whippet of any colouring, but will never understand why there is so much reluctance towards showing, let alone the breeding of solid colours, in particular blacks and blues..
We find them ‘simply’ stunning..

Surely as dedicated and ambitious hound breeders, one would embrace the undertaking of trying to preserve and enhance a rare colouring variety of whippet and strive for the very best quality achievable. We soon realised this was not the case, even with a breed standard allowing “any colour or mixture of colours”. There should therefore be something for everyone.. blacks and blues shouldn’t be penalised or condemned, let alone ridiculed. They’re not ALL that bad..

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Ms Tamara Howarth (Taraly kennels, France) is one of our most respected solid black whippet breeders. Tamara bred the “King” of solid blacks - ‘Spike’
Multi INT BISS CH TARALY MALCOM X

The name says it all, indicating Tamara’s stand on colour prejudice.. (go ‘black power!’). ‘Spike’ is not in our lines here in Australia but having been a constant inspiration to us, we aim to one day breed a dog of such substance, and character..

On her website, Tamara quotes Malin Westlie (Macawe Whippets, Sweden) as saying, “..he’s a very famous dog and he knows it..” (we love that!).

Spike has won a Whippet Specialty “Best In Show” (for novices; that’s a really big deal, especially for a solid black) and had lots of other titles for all sorts of clever things, beyond being an “International” Champion, having won 5 CACIBs (after 15 months of age and first and last must be at least 12 months apart). CACIBs are only awarded at International Shows making them very difficult to obtain. There are many, many shows in Europe that will award national CCs, but not CACIBs.

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He has won over 30 times, including a ‘World Winner’ Title, having been awarded at the ‘World Dog Show’ in Portugal 2001. Under breed authority and one of the most respected Whippet specialist judges, Magnus Hagstedt (‘Signum’, Sweden) ‘Spike’ won “Best of Breed” over top winning, parti coloured European and Scandinavian dogs including, among many others, a famous Swedish Top winning descendant of ‘Person’ Multi Ch Statuesque Personalised (imp Aust)

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Tamara has this to say –

So please; don’t be prejudice! As we continue to prove under International and leading Specialist judges, there really ARE decent “coloured” (Tamara and I both dislike this term) whippets out there; or should we just plainly say decent “solid” blacks and solid colours out there..

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A permanent commitment to breeding quality solid coloured whippets allows us the ability to primarily raise pups indoors, dedicating many hours a day to nurturing their needs. All too often, a healthy interaction with humans is restricted to feeding times and occasional contact, fairly limited periods in most busy, working people’s lives.

The outgoing and well-adjusted temperament is guaranteed in all our puppies, as well as having established the fundamental skills for their life at a new home. As many people have found, our pups “speak” for themselves. We place considerable emphasis on rearing the best possible new members of someone’s home and are very particular about where our pups are placed. Any potential homes must review and comply with the IBIZA Puppy Policy. Puppies can only be visited after their 6-week vaccination has been given and no allocation to new homes is made before 10 weeks of age.

People in the Melbourne area are welcome to visit and meet our dogs (by appointment please). We only have pups when we want one (or two..) for ourselves, about 1 or maybe 2 litters per year, so any interest in our pups should be registered well in advance.

The eagerly awaited repeat of the “D” Litter by our solid white ‘Beryl’ is planned again for 2009. You can see future details at – Planned Litters. You can follow the progress of current and future litters at our – Weblog NEWS page (all our Current News, Show Results & various Whippet Topics).

You can also visit our regularly updated PHOTO GALLERY and see all of our pictures. Our Show Wins can be found at our NEWS page and various Whippet Topics are on our Weblog.

All words in BLUE (dog’s names, breeder’s prefix, webpages, etc.,) and some headings in BOLD are “LINKS”, so feel free to click on these to see the dog or pup’s individual page, breeder’s site, etc,.
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Our show results have been neglected for quite some time (sorry..) and will be updated in the future, but past wins include -
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A stunning “BEST IN SHOW” win in Sydney
with our then 14 mth old Pharaoh Hound
‘Zoe’ – BISS Aust Ch Dragos Uprising at the NSW Sighthound Show 2008 under a leading Pharaoh Hound breed specialist judge from Scandinavia, with an entry of over 250 exhibits!! In fact, for the first time, Colin’s name appears on a Specialty Show “BIS” award Trophy as being ‘Zoe’s owner! Colin’s name is also on each and every “Best of Breed” and Challenge Certificate achieved with her leading up to this “Best In Show” win in Sydney. Having attained the points needed for her Australian Champion title, she had been exclusively handled and housed by Colin leading up to this 2008 Sighthound Club Show ‘BIS’ win.

We have also had multi “Class In Group” and “R/Up In Group” wins with our GSP ‘Edge’ (his first at at just 10 months old) as well as an “Intermediate In Show”. Aust Ch Canawindra Dubl Date is bred and initially exhibited by Mel & Faye Park. CLICK HERE to see his pics on FaceBook and visit his Photo Album

Our whippets have also had several Challenges and “Best of Breeds” including black brindle ‘Rusty’ CH Baronrath Mahogany Rust and brindle parti ‘Rosie’ CH Bellendene Rosetta, (both NOW Championship tilted) as well as solid black ‘Elvira’ Ibiza Viva La Vida and black (with white blaze) ‘Rosso’ Ibiza Maroula Mavros (pictured below)

After multi “Res CCs” ‘Rosso’ finally achieved his first “CC” (aged 11 months) under a sight hound specialist at the Belgrave & District Kennel Club Show ’08 held at KCC Park (a metropolitan show).

We took six placements at the Melbourne Royal Show with our Whippets, including four 2nd places!! (in some large classes). Our young Pharaoh Hound ‘Zoe’ won Bitch Challenge and went on to take “R/Up Best of Breed”, with our German Shorthair Pointer ‘Edge’ winning his strong Junior Class.
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Read more about our prior Dog Show Results on our NEWS pages