Please tell us something about your first Whippet, how and why you acquired it.

As a young kid I always admired sighthounds. At home we always had German Shepherds, which I didn’t like so much.

It was my dream to own a sighthound of my own one day.  When I left home to live on my own the first thing I did was buy a dog of my own -- ,a sighthound -- a Whippet !

Ravel Du Chawia came at the age of 9 months to me, as a pet, but his breeder already entered him for two shows.  She gave me the opportunity to go to those shows, as his entries had already been paid for so I thought, why not give it a try?

At his first show Ravel won the Belgian Junior title at the biggest show in Belgium, Brussels.  And before I knew it I was completely addicted to showing dogs …….  

In your opinion, what is most typical in a Whippets character? And what do you like best?

What I like about a whippet is that it is such an easy going, sweet tempered affectionate dog.  It is, for me, the perfect breed.  They’re not small, not big, they’re very clean dogs, and they are very attached to their owner yet very lively outside.

The whippet is in my opinion the dog of this century.  He can adjust himself in every situation.

 
Was breeding dogs a dream of your childhood or did you get later on it?

Breeding dogs was not my dream as a child. My father bred horses and when I was 10 years I started to breed guinea pigs.  I gave them names and wrote self made pedigrees for them, and tried to build a breeding program.  I also went to shows with them. So I guess that showing and breeding was somewhere in me all the time!!!

After dog shows became my hobby, it was not too long before I had the idea of breeding a first litter.  Thanks to the help of Leona Dams Reyneart who supported me from the beginning, and to the help of Nadine Savoie for letting me use her kennel name, I bred my first litter in 1997.  
 

What was your intention as you chose Boxing Helena's as your kennel name?

Boxing Helena is a movie I saw that had a real impact on me after I saw it.  I kept thinking about it.  The movie is about a man who is so desperately in love with a woman that he would do anything to keep her – even cutting off her arms and legs to make her dependent on him because he was obsessed with her. Well, I’m obsessed by my dogs, and as that title stayed in my mind, it was the first name I thought of when it came time to choose a catchy memorable kennel name.

I also think that the “Boxing” part in the name sounds strong, and “Helena” is elegant , exactly how a whippet should be : strong and elegant.  This idea I also wanted to show in my logo of my kennel name, the strong letters for Boxing and the elegant letters for Helena.  
   

Did you have any mentors as you started your breeding program?

Yes a lot, and all the success I have today with my dogs is thanks to all those people.  I think that you can never achieve great things in life alone, you always need good friends who are honest and sharing with you, and who really keep you focused on your program and your plans..

As I already told you, Leona Dams Reyneart played a prominent role in my dog life, as she was the one who taught me to continue with my dreams, to be professional, and to believe in my dogs and my program. 

I was also very lucky to start my breeding program with Nevedith bloodlines from England and the Newton family and Lanny Morry ( Avalonia whippets Canada ) have always been there to help me, teach me, and to share all their knowledge, which is worth a million to me.  
 

Which lines does your kennel base on?

As I said in the answer before, most of my breeding is based on Nevedith lines.

My X litter was bred out of Nevedith Supa Sassy and Nevedith Veefa Vagabond, who was bred on the famous Nevedith double J litter.  I never saw Veefa Vagabond in real life, only in pictures because he was in Denmark.  I bred that litter with him basically relying on my knowledge of pedigree breeding, and it worked fantastically and gave me my base to start with.

I was very lucky to start with a litter as basis for continuing on, and not just one dog.

As I also believe very much in line-breeding, and in a very strong mother line, you can see today that almost all my litters go back to Sassy.

When I take puppies back from breeders who use my dogs, I never take back a bitch with another mother line.  In such cases I always take a male puppy back, to continue my line, and to keep the line of my own selected bitches intact.   
 

How many litters did you breed so far?

Until now I bred 21 Whippet litters and 2 Cirneco Dell’Etna litters.  These litters have produced 31 champions for me up to the present. Together they gave me 81 national championtitles, in 30 different countries, and 18 international championtitles.    

How would you describe your breeding program?

I believe firmly in strong pedigrees.  Every litter I have bred has been, first and foremost, for myself, in order to keep something and to build up my program.

But as my litters have such carefully linebred pedigrees, I have also found out that they have also been  very useful for other breeders too.  This is something what makes me very happy and proud, because when breeders use your dogs and when they have great results with them, it means that that they greatly value the worthiness of my program.   

So I see my breeding program as a solid one, strongly linebred, but always using some outcrosses at the appropriate time, when needed, but never too much, always returning to the roots of my program and the basics that gave me the breeding program I have today.    

How do you socialize your puppies until they move to their new homes?

My puppies are born in the house, between the adult dogs. As I have a business of my own, lots of people come in the house every day to work, so the puppies have people, noises and lots of touching hands from the start.

I also have some kennel help with a young woman  who comes every day to take care of the pups and when they are old enough she takes them out on the street, puts them in the car etc to socialize them.…..  

In your opinion, what is the best age to give the puppies to their new owners and why do you think so?

My pups go at 8 weeks at the earliest, never before, which is fine for me.   

For which qualities are you looking first when judging a Whippet?

I look for a lot of things, including overall balance ,long flowing lines, elegance combined with power, and definitely movement – true coming and going and excellent side gait that propels them around the ring.

So many whippets are taking short steps, no drive in their movement.  It is a sighthound and should move easily and effortlessly and cover a lot of ground in a very fluid, flowing movement.   A lot of times I am surprised and disappointed to see that there are still so many dogs being exhibited that are moving with many short steps and going basically nowhere slowly.    

What qualities are you looking for, when choosing a puppy you want to keep in your kennel?

One of the nice things about linebreeding is that you can assess your puppies very well because you come to know the traits that a line produces and reproduces.  This makes picking pups and grading a litter very easy for me..

On the other hand, when I do an outcross litter, I have much more difficulty choosing a puppy even though I have deliberated selected a top quality dog to be the other parent in that outcross breeding.  But not knowing the other line as well as I know my own line always makes you think hard about your choices. 

 In puppies I look for strong bodies, with length, good angulations, long necks, wide and deep chests.

                      
There is an American and an English breeding standard. What do you think about the differences between them and is it really necessary to have two standards or could you imagine an international breeding standard?

An international breed standard would be ideal, but we are now too far away from that for me to ever believe it will happen.

Here in Europe we have our own standard and it is difficult to show or breed American dogs over here.

I see it in a lot of breeding programs, and mostly with new breeders. They think they are going to breed the perfect whippet, the combination of English and American lines and they end up with something that is not the best of either.  I think we have all tried this sort of mixing, but while there has been occasionally success the reality is most of these breedings are ultimately seen as failures.  Really experienced breeders know how to combine them and end up with whippets who can compete in Europe.  

What do you think about inbreeding, linebreeding and outcrossing?           

They can all be useful. The closest I ever bred was half-brother to half-sister, and that’s how far it goes for me.

I also have used outcrosses when I need to do so, but I don’t like or believe in breeding one outcross to another outcross and on and on again and again as some do so they can brag about pedigrees full of champions.  But a mix of so many dogs without breeding type to type, results in dogs and litters that have nothing that resembles anything you would really produce in a well line bred litter.  Ultimately these dogs are so much of a mishmash that you simply cannot expect to do any good breeding with them or get anything reliable and consistent in the way of type or quality out of a litter from them anymore.

But when you do linebreeding, it is very important that you breed back on lines that you know.  This you can only achieve with experience.  It’s also very important that you have other breeders who work with the same lines and can share some of their own experience with you. Of course people you can trust in this world are hard to find, and when they do they are treasures.  It takes time and carefully building a friendship and knowledge of these breeders’ lines, to see a fuller picture of where your common lines are going and what they are producing.  And that makes it worthwhile.  Honesty here is the key:  you have to admit when things work badly, as well as well, and you have to learn from those experiences and be prepared to share them honestly.

        
What are the most important criterion when choosing a fitting bitch?

A good brood bitch is strong, has no major faults, and has a super pedigree, with only strong and quality bitches in her mother line.  

What do you think about the frequent use of some stud dogs? Would you consider this more positive or negative?

That’s a very difficult question. When the dog is good, there is no problem when they use him a lot. But it will become a problem if that dog produces some faults, and before you know it a complete population will suffer from the same problems. When that dog is used a lot but in different countries on different lines, it is not such a big problem.

But I see in some countries, people all use the same stud dog, because he is a big winner or he is owned by someone important. They all copy each other, and finally all end up with down the rabbit hole with the  same basic genetic traits and faults... and that is a big problem.     

In my own breeding I go back a lot of times to Eng.Ch. Nevedith Justa Jesta, and that’s also the reason I bred once a half-brother and half-sister combination, back to Jesta.  I wanted to see if that close breeding to him would cause problems in my litter.  All was ok, so I feel now much safer when I see Jesta sometimes disappear off the back end of a pedigree because I don’t have to worry for that as I know I have been able to capture and cement his strong qualities in the dogs he produced for me, and take those traits forward in the pedigrees of future generations.  I do know of some dogs that they have things or give things to their offspring that I don’t like and that’s why I don’t want to see them too much in my pedigrees.  

Which dogs currently live at yours? Do you have any other breed?

From France, Ch.Vague á l’âme Du Chawia, from Lithuania Ch.Balmy Limonite Dominija, from UK Ch.Nevedith Pfa Princess and from my own breeding Ch.Bh’s Epos Ena, Bh’s Imenitni, Bh’s Jelaware, Ch.Bh’s Hilo Sunset and Bh’s Epos Tesera.

Ch.Bh’s Eva So Sweet is currently in Canada but will return soon back home.

There’s one cirneco dell’etna , Ch.Boxing Helena’s Gieffeffe . 

What activities are you and your Whippets involved with? (i.e. Coursing, Racing, Agility, Obedience….or any other sports/occupations)

I restrict myself to showing the dogs. When you want to be successful in something you have to go for it 100 % and I think you can’t do that in different things. Most of my dogs have their official racing licence and I go to trainings on the racetrack but that’s it.     

In your opinion, what was your most successful litter?

What is successful ?  If you ask for champions in one litter, the X litter, Art litter and Epos litter all produced 4 champions. But I see a successful litter also in what a litter does in the future, in a breeding program irrespective of whether there were many or even any champions in it.

In this case, my X litter was together with the Epos litter a milestone for myself.

The X litter ( Ch.Nevedith Veefa Vagabond x Ch.Nevedith Supa Sassy ) is the base of my complete breeding program and can be found in pedigrees all over Europe.

The Epos litter ( Ch.Nevedith Eefa Empra x Ch.Boxing Helena’s Art Groupie ) holds my two most important and most recent producers -- Epos Ena and Epos Tesera.  They stamp their type so much on their puppies, a type I look for so there is no doubt that these dogs will be also in the near future an important part in my breeding.

Of all the Whippets you have bred, who was the closest to your personal vision of perfection and why?

SBIS Multi Ch.Boxing Helena’s Epos Ena  “Justin” . He is a stallion of a dog, with so much charisma, the type I like, and with a great movement.  His pedigree, his qualities as a stud dog, which are seen with every bitch he has been used on where I can see how strongly his qualities are passed on in his puppies.  He really has it all.

Not to forget his personality, he is really a once in a lifetime dog for me.

The biggest winner I ever bred is BIS Multi Ch.Boxing Helena’s Eva So Sweet “Jen”.  She is elegant with a nice type and also a wonderful movement, and she likes to show herself, what is also important in the rings.  
                      
How do you choose the names for your dogs? What are you Whippets named after?

For their official names I try to find a theme to give to a complete litter.

In Belgium we have a limit of 10 letters for a name and a specific letter to start with, what makes it quite difficult.

For the cirnechi litters I take names of  perfumes to show clearly it is the “other” breed.

Their pet names in my house, are sometimes also with a meaning behind.

For example, I called the dark brindle puppy in the Y litter Imaan, after model Iman Abdulmajid.  Her daughter Alek, I also called after a black model , Alek Wek.  Her daughter was Liya (from Liya Kebede ) and her daughter is Waris ( from Waris Diree )  
                      
Have you ever had doubts about continuing your breeding?

Especially in the beginning, but then there was Leona there all the time to help me and support and encourage me and answer my doubts.  It really is important to have friends and people who support you.  

What is the best thing about breeding dogs?

Breeding dogs is becoming a way of life for me and I like it.

And it is also everything that comes with that , from living with the dogs, training them, showing them, doing paperwork for entries or official papers, working on the publicity, raising puppies, inviting new people, organising walks, judging , giving trainings at our training sessions etc…. I like it all.  

Do you think it is hard for a novice to receive guidance and support?

To be honest I am rather surprised at how most new people entering a breed seem to quickly get the idea they know it all after a few nice show results or after breeding just one litter.  It’s very strange, as it took me years to learn, and even now I learn every day.

When people asked me for advice I used to help them the best I could with honest advice based on my experience and knowledge, and freely given.  But I found that most people seeking this advice really don’t seem to give it any value unless it confirms their own particular points of view, which very often are based on pretty scant knowledge.  It is hard to try to help someone who has no real respect for honest advice because they have already formed and opinion and decided to proceed on their own course anyway.  

So I try to stay more away from it now.  Only when people are really interested and really want to learn I will help them.

These days the superficial world of the internet is for some the real world and they learn everything (and nothing) from surfing the net, and not from real life first hand experiences of other breeders/exhibitors.  
                      
Do you have any suggestions for prospective breeders?

Visit as much breeders as you can, and make up your mind about what you want. Stick to that, and continue.

Breed only with the best dogs – if a dog is a pet quality animal let it be a pet but don’t put it into a breeding program – and breed only to the best well bred bloodlines. Don’t try to copy someone else slavishly but seek inspiration from long term breeding programs that have made an impact in the breed at the same time as you use that knowledge to try to do your own thing.

When I started I remember I studied pedigrees all night long.  Mostly pedigrees of Jackie Bourdin’s Grenoulliere kennel. At that time there was no internet and I had to write them all down from catalogues and books I got.  Still today I think that Mrs Bourdin is an extremely clever breeder, and I learned a lot by looking at her pedigrees, the idea behind it, breeding her type and continuing to breed quality.   
                      
Which Whippets in the past impressed you the most?

My favourite whippet of all time is Ch.Nevedith Justa Jesta.  When I saw him for the first time in real I got goosebumps, what a dog !! What a mover !!  I was never before in my life impressed by any dog like that.

His son Ch.Nevedith Eefa Empra is also a dog that makes my heart beat faster.

And I can’t forget to mention Jesta’s mother Ch.Nutshell Of Nevedith, the one who made me write my first letter to the Newton family asking for a puppy.  I never saw Shelly in the rings, but only as a retired gracious lady laying on her own private couch, she made me feel I was in the presence of greatness.

At Crufts I was blown away by Ch.Barnesmore Black Orchid and she stays in my mind as one of the most beautiful bitches I saw.

In Germany the litter sisters High On Emotion Blind Date and Blue Velvet made a big impression on me, also from Germany Ch.Whipcat Going My Way, from Denmark  Ch.Frontrunner’s Love ‘n Emotion and from France Ch.Tea Time XR De Chambord, Ch.Silkstone Opera Queen, Ch.Jake Du Manoir De La Grenouillère and Ch.Falconcrag Specialite remain forever in my mind. More recently I was impressed a lot of times when seeing Ch.Rivarco Arwen.   
 

And more recent…?

As a new judge I didn’t judge so many whippets yet, but I was very fortunate to have real stunning dogs as my winners. Ch.Blue Spring’s Coffee And Cream is a wonderful classic whippet with no exaggeration, just like a whippet should be. And a bitch that impressed me a lot is Ch.Parnew Whispa At Whipcat.   When I think about her, I think about perfect movement.   
                      
What is the best advice you have ever received from somebody concerning your dogs?

To believe in them. Only go on with the best, and only show in the rings dogs that represent what you believe in and what you stand for.

 
What do you think are possible health problems in Whippets?

I think we are lucky to have such a healthy breed. How many breeders today can brag, as many of us can, about dogs who routinely lived to be healthy fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, or even seventeen year old dogs as some of us have enjoyed?  We are very lucky.  But that means we must always continue to be very vigilant and ensure that where problems are found, they are not bred on or hidden away.

Do you think that the health of the breed is paid enough attention?

When there are no major problems I don’t think we have to worry.  You can check your dog for so many things, but I see no real reason to do it right now, as I don’t know of any problem in our breed.

Now, looking back, do you wish you had done something different in your breeding program?

Every step I took was a step I needed to learn and to know what I know now, so I’m happy I took that long way to get to where I am now.  

What are your future plans for your breeding?

They change with every litter that is born J

Most of my future plans will continue following along the lines of what I have been doing, so it may sound a bit boring but my goal is to try to continue to breed the quality that I have now, and if I can do that, that’s what I’m hoping for.

I’m not planning too much in the future, something what I did before much easier.  If I can continue what I’m doing now, it is ok for me. No wild plans anymore, I’ve had that and as I’m getting older …… !! 

Some last words? 

I wish that more people would realise that going to dog shows and breeding dogs is a hobby and has to be fun.  So try to enjoy it, be sporting, sharing, and make friends.  It makes it all so much nicer.

Ch.Nevedith Eefa Empra and Ch.Boxing Helena's Art Groupie

BIS Multi Ch.Boxing Helena's Eva So Sweet

Ch.Nevedith Supa Sassy the foundation bitch of Bh's

Multi Ch.Boxing Helena's Xotic Xile

Multi Ch.Boxing Helena's Hilo Sunset

SBIS Multi Ch.Boxing Helena's Epos Ena

BIS Multi Ch.Boxing Helena's Eva So Sweet

Five Best In Show Winners and Multi Champions :

Bh's Epos Ena, Bh's Eva So Sweet, Vague à l'âme Du Chawia,

Balmy Limonite Dominija and Bh's Hilo Sunset