La storia
One name, three generations.
How a childhood gift became an Italian house of wirehaired dachshunds.
Favola
The first one was a gift.
When Francesca was ten, her father gave her a wirehaired dachshund puppy. It looked to her like a lion cub — the beard, the brows, the certainty. She named her Favola: a fable.
Elegant, sweet-natured, courageous — and rather pleased with herself. Francesca would meet the same character in the many dachshunds that followed.
«La chiamai Favola e col tempo mi accorsi che non vi era nome più appropriato di quello.»
“I called her Favola — and with time I saw that no name could have fit her better.”
— Francesca, from the house’s own telling
1990
1990
In 1990 Francesca lost both of her parents. The same day, her dachshund Joel died in her arms. The house — six dachshunds then, three from Germany and three from Canada — went quiet.
A dear friend brought her a two-month-old male, KevinCostner del Gotha. He needed her; that gave her life its sense back.
She had never thought of breeding before. When Kevin sired his first litter and she saw what was born, the house filled with joy — and she chose to relive that joy, and to share it. The kennel begins there.
Il sentierothe old stone path
Il nome
Her mother’s name was Helsing.
When the affix had to be chosen, Francesca reached for a memory: her mother, Helsing. It was a boy who reshaped it. Watching the small hunter at work — vigilant, certain, after its prey — her son found the words the house has kept ever since.
«Un piccolo giustiziere… le dimensioni non contano.»
“A little avenger — always vigilant, out to prove that size does not count.”
— Gabriel, as a boy
Helsing became Wanhelsing. The mother, the founder, the boy — one name holds all three.
The crest still carries it: the dragons, the vigilance, the size that does not count.
Francesca’s idea of the dachshund
L’idea
In her first years Francesca formed her idea of the dachshund, and set the Wanhelsing selection upon it. It is written here almost as she said it.
Against every exaggeration.
Short in the loin, the back straight.
Not very tall on the legs — and above all, not in size.
The correct angulations of the hindquarters.
A male must carry an important head; a female must mirror her femininity.
Against every morphological exaggeration — which, among other things, can endanger the dog’s health.
The quality of a dog depends also on the balance of its character.
Le generazioni
Her own telling, dog by dog — with pages from the archive.
- DulceCream del WanhelsingBOB & Best in Show · Raduno Bassotti di Erba 2004 · Top Dog 2005The first time Gabriel saw him he said: “He will adore you for life.” He did — a great sire, gentle above all with the puppies.
- GabrielGarko del WanhelsingWUT world title · Bratislava 2009DulceCream’s son. “An elegance in the ring without equal — the walk, the stop, the movement, all of it natural to him.” He was lost to a hornet sting.
WUT Weltsiegerschau, Bratislava 2009 · from the archive - LouisVuitton del WanhelsingGiovane Campionessa Europea 2010 · Campionessa Italiana 2011DulceCream’s daughter — femininity made dachshund, almond eyes of the deepest black. Best in Show juniores at Celje.
Top Dog Giovani 2010 — the finale, Roma · from the archive - VanhelsingCampione Europeo e Mondiale · 2007Kevin’s son — «il vero mito», the true legend among dachshunds. He first entered a ring at seventeen months; three months later he was Campione Italiano.
Euro Dog Show, Zagreb 2007 · from the archive The chronicle runs on — Helsingvon, Briatore, PenelopeCruz, Vittakerdoolar — into rings the house still remembers.
PenelopeCruz — Campionessa Italiana · from the archive 
Giovane Campione Mondiale · WUT 2014, Helsinki 
World Dog Show 2015, Milano — two world titles in one ring - Today — Prince & Sapore — the champions of todayPrince — World Winner 2022, Madrid · Sapore — World Winner 2023, Genève · 2026, BolognaTheir pages are still being written.
The papers behind the years — the historic archive
Dalle cronache della casa — pages from the house archive, shown as they were kept · 2007–2015
Due generazioni
She built it. He grew up inside it.
Francesca built this house — dog by dog, name by name. Gabriel grew up inside it: his first babysitter was the dachshund Jacqueline, an excellent bodyguard who let no stranger near him.
«Al mio fianco da qualche anno c’è mio figlio Gabriel, e questo rende tutto ancora più speciale.»
“For some years now my son Gabriel has been at my side — and that makes everything more special still.”
— Francesca, 2017
Today the kennel carries his name — the same name tattooed on his forearm.
La casaa mother and her seven, at home
Oggi e domani
The house, today.
Almost forty years on, the house keeps its method: few dogs, known by name. The ring is one day in a hundred; the other ninety-nine are home. And the families who take a puppy from here are answered in year one — and in year ten.
The next chapter is being written by the dogs themselves.