|
© Minna Ruotsalo, Antoinette Wiwenes
The interview has been published in Finnish in the Finnish Whippet Magazine 4/2008.
Antoinette Wiwenes breeds racing whippets in Belgium under the kennel name Oochigea’s. She is well known breeder in Europe and in North America too. There are also some Oochigea’s whippets in Finland, Oochigea’s Vanille (born in 1997) being the first one to move to the land of snow and thousands of lakes.
1. How did you get familiar with whippets and whippet racing? Your first whippet?
I had my first whippet in 1985. This fawn whippet bitch was a rescue whippet from Help Ani-mal. She was very thin when I received her and it took me one year to have her in decent weight. She was also very shy at the beginning and didn’t trust people. It took me a while to make her more trustful.
I discovered the tracks and the world of racing thanks to my first whippet. It was love at first sight and I decided to buy a pedigree racing whippet. I bought my first two racing whippets (males) at the end of 1986.
Graceful
© Gust De Leener |
Oochigea's Ephallius
© Gust De Leener |
2. What attracts you in whippets and whippet racing?
The double attraction of a whippet: whippet is a lovely pet, a friend and a fantastic working dog. A trustful whippet works for his owner, racing is his favourite hobby. When whippet is kept well, close to his owner he will give the best of himself.
3. Why did you want to become a breeder and what is the history of your kennel name?
After having my first racing whippets I got more excited about whippets and bought a female whippet from the Netherlands in 1988. This whippet was not a good racer due to an injury she had at the age of six months (she broke her foreleg).
In 1992 I bought another female whippet from the Netherlands. She was called Graceful aka Shelsea. With Graceful I really started my breeding.
My kennel name Oochigea’s comes from the United States of America. Oochigea was a goddess after an Indian legend. She lived on the mountains and protected children and animals. I love this name and asked the Belgian Kennel Club to admit it as my kennel name. It was approved in November 1992.
I love puppies and try to preserve the real explosif whippet, the original racing whippet with his fantastic temperament and his lovely pet behaviour.
Jos Ruysen & Antoinette Wiwenes
© Dieter Vertsreken |
Oochigea's Bacillius & Oochigea's Chanel
© Gust De Leener |
4. When did your first litter born and how many litters do you have? (you can mention them, if you want, if you have one whippet bitch behind your litter, please tell about her, you can tell about your imports, you can also mention to what countries you have exported your whippets etc.)
My first litter was born in June 1991. I have mostly two litters a year. If I have more reserva-tions I can make a third litter.
Graceful is the female behind my breeding. All Oochigea’s whippets are bred on her. Graceful was a small whippet in size (45 cm, 9.5 kg) but huge in personality. She was very clever and keen on racing. She was also a fantastic mother to her children.
Graceful proved to be a top breeding bitch. She gave me a lot of champions. Graceful’s puppies were exported world wide. These days there are a lot of whippets having Graceful in their pedi-grees in different countries. Not only in Europe but in the North America too. I still breed on her bloodline.
Graceful was a sunshine in my life, the best whippet one can dream of. She was a special whip-pet born on a special day: 29th February 1992. Craceful died 21st April 2008 at the age of 16 years and two months. She is buried at the track of Beringen, a place she loved. She is still pre-sent in my life, in my memories. I’ll never forget this dear friend of mine.
Oochigea's Amytosys & Oochigea's Fryzbylius
© Rob Van Thienen |
Oochigea's Fryzbylius
© Stijn |
5. What things do think are the most important things when breeding racing whippets? What qualities does a top racing whippet have?
In my opinion most important factors in breeding racing whippets are (not in an importance order):
- good bloodlines
- good health
- the character of the whippet: enough temperament but still social, not aggressive towards people or dogs, cleverness
- keen for lure and not disturbing
- the whole litter is racing, not only one of the litter.
A top racing whippet has a healthy mind in an athletic body.
6. Do you have an ideal whippet or an almost ideal whippet you can mention by name? (as a breed-ing bitch, a male, a competitor, if you can’t or don’t want to mention one, this question will not be asked)
Graceful was the absolutely ideal whippet for me.
Oochigea's Shadee & Oochigea's Vanschaï
© Antoinette Wiwenes |
Oochigea's Ephallius
© Gust De Leener |
7. How do you plan your litters? What things do you take into consideration when making a litter and how do you choose a male for your bitch?
My goal as a breeder is an athletic whippet with good size and a healthy mind. I say no to in-breeding. Inbreeding can sometimes give very good results but that kind of breeding is “short time breeding”. I look for a long time breeding, I’m looking for years ahead.
First, it is important to have a good breeding bitch. There has been some research on this sub-ject too. A slower bitch with great temperament can be the best for a breeder. I have proved this many times with my own bitches. Oochigea’s Tea-Time and Oochigea’s Uvangelis who are sis-ters to my first top bitch Oochigea’s Shadee have produced better offspring and more champi-ons than Shadee.
When I choose a male for my bitch I look for a very good pedigree. I want to find a pedigree where the bloodlines have proven to be very stabile and where there are clever racers from gen-erations after generations.
I like the male coming from a litter where all the littermates are racing. A litter where not only the male I am looking for but also his brothers and sisters are racing. I am looking for keen rac-ers and litters where there are no disturbers.
When I’m planning a litter I take into consideration a lot of factors, like “good trapper, good stayer, railer or outside runner, size, way of running, body shape, musculature …” Character is also very important. For a more dominant alpha bitch I choose a sweeter dog and vice versa. I do not like shy whippets. Whippets must have a friendly and open temperament, it’s very im-portant. I always want to see the male I’m interested in and follow his behaviour when he is out of the track. If I don’t like the way the dog is behaving himself I won’t use him. No matter how good he is otherwise.
I must say that the colour of the dog can have some effect on me too. This is not a decisive thing for me but I prefer dark brindle and black whippets.
8. What are your top moments and top achievements in the whippet racing world?
There are a lot of happy and emotional moments in my whippet life, at the tracks and outside the tracks. One of the most memorable moments are Oochigea’s Shadee’s (from Graceful’s sec-ond litter) victories. She was the Belgium champion in 1997 and 1998 and the World champion in 1998. Shadee was my first champion ever.
There have been more Oochigea’s champions after Shadee, in Belgium and outside Belgium. One of the several fine moments was when Oochigea’s Bacillius won the European Champion-ship in 2004. It’s a lot of work and when you succeed in breeding and e.g. in a title race it’s a great feeling.
9. What about sad moments and/or sad things in this hobby?
The saddest moments are usually due to injuries. It’s sad for the dog and for yourself too. Then one must let the dog have a good rest and one must take good care of the dog.
The sad moments are soon forgotten when you are back at the track again and when the dog is racing well. We have less injuries due to hard training and we never race our whippets unless they are in top condition.
10. What do you think about the level of whippets in your country (health, looks, speed, temperament etc.)? Have there been changes during the years? What about in Europe in general?
We have good whippets in Belgium and in Europe in general. Whippets are mostly in good size and they are good racers. There are only few whippets having the problem of disturbing. Whip-pets are usually keen on racing.
One problem that has to be recognized is that it is possible that some bloodlines mixed to certain other ones can produce some whippets with epilepsy. So we need to take care with this.
Other thing we need to take care with in my opinion is the North American imports. I imported the first racing whippet form the North America to Central Europe, namely Canadian Ring-dove Baby James. There are more imports since. These American whippets have been given us speed but they seem to give us sometimes less temperament. The American whippets seem to be softer than our whippets. We need to avoid changing our “explosive” and active European whippet into a softer, less temperament whippet. We need to take care of the size of a whippet too in Europe. USA whippets are much bigger than ours. There is also this “bully whippet” problem (a gene fault which leads to sick dogs) with North American whippets. Fortunately every one can test his/her whippet.
Oochigea's Bacillius
© Antoinette Wiwenes |
11. What does the future for a whippet racing (sighthound racing) look like today in Belgium and in the rest of Europe? What are the good thins and the bad things? What should be improved?
One of the sad things is that some tracks are closed because of financial problems. There are not only fewer tracks but also less people in this hobby these days in Central Europe.
Whippets are still the most popular racing dogs in the competitions. They are easy to take care of, one can say. Nice, friendly and clean pets with good behaviour. And good racers. E.g. the number of greyhounds seem to diminish, there are more greyhounds on sand tracks and less on grass tracks.
12. What are your future plans as a breeder and a competitor?
I will keep on doing what I have been doing for the past years with my whippets. I will give my whippets love, good food and good training. I will continue breeding only with good bloodlines, no inbreeding.
Have very nice moments on the track and have opportunity to compeet against other very good whippets. Produce good racer in different contries and get news about the race results from sold whippets.
I use the opportunity to thank Minna Ruotsalo and her family for trusting in Oochigea’s. Over ten years ago they came to Belgium to import first Oochigea’s Vanille and then Oochigea’s Xamboy, both well known whippets and champions in Finland. Vanille, a daughter of Graceful, is the breeding bitch in the famous Finnish racing kennel MaXwin and Xamboy has given very good racers to different kennels in Finland. Oochigea’s is found in many Finnish pedigrees to-day which I feel very happy about.
Thanks to Minna who chose me and my whippets for her first interview.
| 
