Photo by Brett Ward
Celeritas Borzoi Christmas 2003.
From left to right: the black borzoi is Sartre, the human is Nancy, the standing borzoi is Zodi, and the scrawny teenage borzoi is Porphyry.

Celeritas Borzoi History

Before I left home for collage, my life crossed the path of a few Borzoi over the years. There were the two borzoi that hung out at the Charity Horse Show in Dallas, the Borzoi puppy I saw in a pet shop, a Borzoi that walked passed me at a house I visited briefly, and the Borzoi who graced the booth at a home décor show. Each of these encounters intrigued me. The breed seemed so mysterious. They didn't act like all the other dogs I had known. They would look you straight in the eyes as if to say, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

I did not know much about the breed but those few brief encounters created a deep fascination for these unique hounds. In college, I missed having a dog, and decided to get one. My family had owned a mixed breed and a wonderful German Shepherd Dog bred from working stock. I enjoyed training Kelly, our shepherd. I also thought that I would enjoy showing, since I had really enjoyed showing my horse in 4-H. I immediately thought of getting a Borzoi. However, many people warned me that Borzoi were stupid. I did not want a stupid dog.

However, things changed one day when I was driving across town on the major north/south thoroughfare in Bryan, Texas. Much to my shock, there was a woman working a large black and tan spotted male borzoi, in absolutely stunning coat, in an advanced obedience recall exercise. He was sitting, downing, and coming all on hand signals. After barely avoiding an accident due to my rubbernecking, I decided that Borzoi must not be dumb if that dog could perform so spectacularly next to a major road.

Savitar, my first sighthound.

This realization took me to the local animal shelter looking for a dog. There were no Borzoi, but there was an Afghan Hound that had been found running loose along a highway. I decided to get this Afghan Hound, even though he was not a borzoi. I figured he would help me understand and appreciate sighthounds. This dog became Savitar, CD, FCh, a wonderful fellow, who was my introduction to gazehounds. People warned me that Afghan Hounds were even stupider than Borzoi. This was actually good news since Savi turned out to be a very smart dog.

Armed with knowledge gained from training my family's Shepherd, supplemented by avid readings on wolf behavior, and knowledge from my behavioral psychology class, Savitar and I joined a local obedience class and had loads of fun. He actually did pretty well, scoring consistently in the mid to high 180's. He was a totally cool dog.

My experience with Savi convinced me that Borzois were not going to be as stupid and untrainable as people had warned. He also helped me discover that I really liked the sighthound temperament. In fact, I preferred them to the more biddable herding dogs. As I approached the acquisition of my teaching certificate, I started looking for a Borzoi in earnest.

My search took me to the local dog show. Some years before I had met Francie Stull of Kristull Borzoi who was handling Kristull Hhigh Voltage at that show. I was quite impressed. We had talked and I told her I was thinking about getting a Borzoi. However, I did not follow up on those intentions. When I met her this second time, Francie asked me, "So when are you going to get serious about getting a Borzoi?" Well, one thing led to another and I ended up at her home looking at her dogs.

Iva and I enjoying Texas Hill Country sights.
Photo taken by Chuck Stull

Of course I did not want much. All I wanted was a dog I could lure course, train for obedience competition, and show. Oh, naïveté! Little did I know just how few Borzoi have bench, field, and obedience titles. Instead, I got Kristull Evening Star, CD (Iva). Unfortunately, despite the fact that her mother, Ch. Kristull Ssatin Butterfly FCh, LCM and her grandmother, Ch. Kristull Ffuture Shock FCh, LCM, had been excellent runners Iva did not run. Nor was she a show dog. But Iva and I had quite a lot of fun doing obedience. Not only that, Iva was the absolute best pet. She endeared me to Borzoi forever. We had many adventures and fun times.

After owning Iva, I can assure anyone that if you take the time to know a Borzoi, you will find that they are anything but dumb. Now, if you equate biddability with intelligence, you may not agree with me, but if you approach training in the right way and respect your Borzoi, you will find that they are quite intelligent.

Hay Luz taking a break from ball squeaking.

Anyway, part of my purchasing agreement for Iva (this is not a purchasing agreement I recommend, especially for novice owners) with Francie Stull was that I would have to breed Iva to the stud of her choice. Also, because Iva had a spotted dominant black coat color-a color that was rare at that time in the US-Francie would keep all of the dominant black puppies born in the litter. After entering three weekends of obedience shows in a row when Iva was two years old and having her come into heat the Thursday before the first show in the series, I called Francie and told her that now was the time to breed that litter so I could complete my obligation.

On February 2, 1987 the Celestial A litter was born. This litter was by Kristull Xxerces Kenric, FCh and out of Kristull Evening Star, CD. This litter consisted of eight puppies. My pick had to go to Francie since she was a dominant black. This bitch ended up going to Mary Childs and became known as Ch. Windnsatin Celestal Kristull (Mara) and was the foundation of the Windnsatin dominant black line and is behind all dogs descended from Mara's son, Knuckles (Ch. Wind'n Satin Black Legacy CD, SC, LCM.). Even though Mara was the only puppy from this litter that was bred, her descendants currently span the US and are also found in Europe and Argentina.

This litter taught me a lot. I decided that I needed to learn a lot more before getting myself involved in breeding another litter. One can learn a lot about dogs by the way they age and the ailments they get or don't get when they are old. After watching these dogs grow old, I decided that I really needed to learn a lot more about breeding. Further, watching how widely the descendants of Iva have spread has really brought home to me the awesome responsibility breeders have.

So I enjoyed my dogs and studied Borzoi and breeding. When the time came I started anew. Several of my first dogs had been plagued by recurrent neck pain caused by cervical spinal instability and I'd had three dogs drop dead before my eyes. Because of these experiences, I decided that any dog I bred would have to be able to compete for years in arenas that stressed them physically. I hoped that using performance as one of the criteria for breeding selection would help me select dogs that did not have spinal problems or cardiac issues.

Photo by Dick Van Hooser.

Lightning running.

After much agonizing contemplation, and I am sure, very annoying hemming and hawing, I finally decided to breed Flyte (Ravenwolf's Midsummer Flyte, LCM2) to Mir (DC Meilikki A Kind Of Magic, SC, LCM, SGRC, ORC) for my second litter. At this point, I had to make a decision about my kennel name. Some years previous, a borzoi kennel had started using a name that differed from Celestial by only one letter. I wished to avoid confusion between my kennel and this new kennel; however, I would never breed frequently enough nor advertise enough to make my kennel name distinctive from the new kennel. Because of this, I decided to change the name of my kennel to Celeritas.

So there you have it, how I got into Borzoi and why I am where I am today.