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Silken Windhounds are a quiet breed, by the standards of dogs: barking is rated 2 out of 5 in our breed record, near the quiet end of the scale. The Silken Windhound is a Hound breed from United States with a Sweet, aloof with strangers, devoted and fast asleep by the fire temperament, and it tends to watch the world first and comment rarely, usually when something genuinely unusual earns it. The breed is Sweet, aloof with strangers, devoted and fast asleep by the fire, with high energy and a daily exercise need of 45 to 90 minutes, and none of that energy seems to route through its mouth. For apartment dwellers and anyone whose walls are shared, that rating is one of the strongest lines in this breed's record, and the sections below explain the few situations that still draw a bark out of it.
Silkens are gentle, affectionate and unusually sociable for sighthounds, with a sprinter's athleticism and a companion's sweetness. Owners describe a dog of unusual completeness: the sighthound temperament gentled and silk coated, built for both the field and the sofa. Expect a dog of two speeds and unusual grace. Silky and wavy, with feathering. United States produced the Silken Windhound, a medium sized sighthound bred to course game by sight at full speed, as a modern American coursing breed shaped purely for the chase.
Numbers first, because they explain the voice. The Silken Windhound carries a bark score of 2 of 5, flanked by energy at 4 of 5, shedding at 3 of 5 and grooming effort at 4 of 5. Against that background the bark score, 2 out of 5, is one line in a coherent record. Owners who read the whole cluster can predict the soundtrack of their street far better than owners who read the single number, because the audiences decide when the voice gets used.
Do not expect the puppy to be as quiet as the adult, and do not mistake a quiet breed for a silent one. Young Silken Windhounds test their voices like any young dog, and adolescence brings a few months of opinions before the adult economy sets in. Very occasionally, another dog's provocation answered once, in full stops rather than paragraphs. That is close to the whole catalogue. The breed's Sweet, aloof with strangers, devoted and fast asleep by the fire temperament and high energy produce a dog that processes the world quietly, and owners often report the disconcerting experience of a dog that watches a delivery happen in complete silence and then looks at them, as if to check whether they saw it too.
It rates flats as possible with the full sprinting program delivered. The record's low train score means the sighthound bargain: the Silken is intelligent, biddable for a sighthound and learns household skills readily under kind, consistent, reward based training in short sessions.
No score lives alone on the record. Alongside barking at 2 of 5, the Silken Windhound carries energy at 4 of 5 and a trainability score of 2 out of 5, and apartment life rated With enough exercise. Food for a typical 32 lb adult runs about $23 a month on this site's cost record, and insurance is recorded at $36 to $65 a month, a reminder that the voice comes attached to a whole dog with a decade of budget in it. None of that alters the headline rating, 2 out of 5; it simply keeps the decision about this breed's noise in proportion with the decision about the breed.
The comparison set on the record sharpens the picture. The Silken Windhound's closest matches here, the Whippet, the Magyar Agár and the Saluki, carry their own barking scores, and the spread across that shortlist shows how much the voice can move inside one build and coat type. Each score on the record was assigned breed by breed, and the shortlist exists for comparison, not for averaging.
The one management note that matters with this breed runs the other way: tell your household what a bark means here. In a Silken Windhound home, barking is rare enough to be an alarm with a clean signal, and everyone, sitters and guests included, should know that if this dog is barking, someone should go and look. The handling is simple and total: calm responses to calm behavior, boring responses to demands, and plenty of the things the puppy actually needs arriving before it has to ask loudly. Raise the puppy as if its voice were precious and rationed, and the adult will ration it exactly that way.
Senior status arrives around eight for this long lived breed: twice yearly checks, joint friendly exercise and the softest bed by the warmest fire. Puppies need socialization, grooming habituation, gradual exercise building and alone time trained kindly.
The numbers an owner plans around: a Silken Windhound stands 18 to 24 inches, weighs 20 to 45 lb and lives 14 to 18 years. Its exercise need is 45 to 90 minutes a day, and that line is the single strongest predictor of tonight's noise level in most homes. Barking 2 of 5, energy 4 of 5, trainability 2 out of 5. A small dog's 2 out of 5 and a giant dog's 2 out of 5 are different acoustic events, which is why the size lines belong on a page about noise: pitch, volume and the neighbor's tolerance all scale with the dog producing them.
Sometimes, and sometimes it gives you stereo. In the Silken Windhound's case the setting matters as much as the rule: this is a breed with high energy and a bark level of 2 out of 5, so its voice is heard against a fairly specific home backdrop. A companion can drain the boredom and loneliness out of a Silken Windhound's day, and boredom is a common fuel for barking in a breed needing 45 to 90 minutes of exercise and company to match. But dogs also learn each other's songs: pair a vocal dog with another vocal breed and the duet is a real risk. Choose the second dog for its own record, its bark score included, and introduce it as company, not as a noise treatment with a heartbeat. Owners describe the complete modern sighthound: Borzoi elegance at Whippet scale, in silk, with the sweetest temperament in the coursing family.
Read two lines of the record together: barking at 2 out of 5 and apartment suitability rated With enough exercise. With the Silken Windhound, whose typical weight runs 20 to 45 pounds and whose lifespan reaches 14 to 18 years, the honest answer also changes a little across the dog's life, from puppyhood to senior status at about 8 years. A low score with a good apartment rating is the easy yes. A high score means the honest answer depends on your walls, your neighbors and your willingness to run the management program on this page every day. What never works is hoping the dog did not get the memo about its own breed: a Silken Windhound will be exactly as vocal as its record says, in whatever building it lives in. Puppies are bright, silky charmers; adults are devoted, elegant companions.
Often, yes, and the record's dog rating, Usually good with dogs, frames why. The Silken Windhound's own numbers frame it: shedding at 3 out of 5, grooming at 4 out of 5, and a height of 18 to 24 inches, which is the household this voice has to fit into. Barking at dogs is usually one of three things: a greeting that overshoots, frustration at a lead or fence that prevents a greeting, or a warning to keep distance. The Silken Windhound's score, 2 out of 5, predicts the volume of whichever it is. A dog that is exercised, 45 to 90 minutes a day for this breed, and taught to settle and look back at its owner owns a volume control that an under exercised dog simply does not have.
Last updated: November 11, 2026