Portrait of Backroads Kayak, copyright 2004, Susan Fletcher

Susan Fletcher
Washougal, Washington
(360) 835-5803

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Breaking News from Frontier Chinooks

• Puppies are here!  To view the four boys and three girls of the Frontier 2007 Litter, please click here.
• Frontier Finnigan is missing.  Please click here for information.  He is desperately missed.

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MEET THE CHINOOKS PLANNED BREEDINGS and Puppy News CHIHUAHUAS OTHER ASSORTED BREEDS who call Mud Hill Home

What do all these abbreviations mean?  Titles our dogs have earned MUD HILL PHOTO GALLERY WITH LOVING MEMORIES

Susan Fletcher and Frontier Chinooks are located on Mud Hill, north of Portland, Oregon, over the Columbia River near Washougal, Washington. Susan is a professional dog trainer with a wide variety of interests. Her dogs compete in agility, flyball, obedience, and have an extensive repetoire of tricks. For many years you could see Susan, Chinooks Dakota, Travis, and Quinn, and her Chihuahuas, Eli, Paco, and Speedy performing in the Iams SuperDogs show that visits many of the major dog shows in the western United States.

Frontier dogs are known for their outstanding temperaments. The emphasis in the Frontier breeding program is on healthy dogs that with the best personalities possible. Puppies are placed in homes where they will have a job to do, be it as a family pet and companion, as service dogs for the disabled, conformation competitor, or in competitive agility.

Frontier Chinooks has been on hiatus from breeding for a few years, concentrating on the various dog sports such as weight pulling. However, the hiatus has ended in 2007 with a dual sire breeding of Ch. PR Frontier Indian Summer.  For information on any of the Frontier pack or life on Mud Hill, please call Susan at (360) 835-5803 (Pacific time).  You can also email her at MudHillDogs@aol.com (checked infrequently) or Frontier@rainmountain.net (forwarded to her or just read to her via phone).

"Blizzard Coming" etching by Leon West

Susan is also an accomplished artist in a variety of mediums. Consequently you'll see some of her work and some of her favorites by others scattered throughout her website.

The information here is divided up into sections as follows.  Navigation bars are provided at various intervals so you can jump around as you like. Do take some time to meet all the residents as we love all dogs, not just our Chinooks.

I hope you enjoy your visit to Mud Hill and the Frontier Chinooks.  In addition to your virtual visit to Mud Hill, we do have folks over often to meet our Chinooks.  though the breed is not as rare as it was when we first began our Chinook adventure in the late 1980s, there are still few locations where you can meet a group of Chinooks all at once.  We're the only breeder currently in the Portland/Vancouver area and the next to our north are in the Seattle area with the next to the south around Eugene, Oregon.  So if you are in the Portland/Vancouver area and would like to meet the breed, please call and we'll arrange a time (usually on weekends) when we can meet.  Susan works in Portland at a daycare facility and training center for dogs so she will occasionally have people meet her there.

"Mud Hill" got it's name for a reason. We moved to our property outside of Washougal, Washington in the early 1990s, looking for a place we could build a house and have as many animals as we wanted as members of our family. The property slopes upwards from the access road. At the bottom is our barn where we lived for three years while we slowly built the house near the top. But this is Western Washington and we do receive copious amounts of rain nine months of the year, which produces the mud that gives us the Mud Hill name. It will surprise many that those other three months are typically a near drought and Mud Hill turns into dust hill. But it's our home and we simply wear boots, have scrapers at the door, tile floors inside, and we mop often.

1996 photo of our Chinooks.  Sitting from left to right: Dakota, Arielle, Boone;
Lying down from left: Quinn, Kayak

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Susan first read about Chinooks in a Dog Fancy article in the late 1980s.  That began her search.  She and her partner Marian Brennan already owned Lba mixes Star and Sasha, Australian Cattle Dog Britta, and German Shepherd Dog Raya.  Susan was looking for a friendly breed that would be readily trainable since she was working as a trainer at a facility in Portland.  The Chinook attracted her due to their friendly nature and "every-dog" look.  A purebred would make it easier for her to compete in formal obedience trials.  In those early days, if you thought you might ever want another Chinook, you also had to plan on breeding your own. 

Arielle was the first to join the family, coming from TJ and Grace Anderson in Jackson, Wyoming.  The floodgates were opened and within a few years, Boone, Kayak, and Dakota joined the family as Susan met other Chinook owners and breeders.  Susan and Marian had moved from the Portland suburbs to Mud Hill and I guess you could say it was all downhill from there.  Arielle and Kayak have since gone to the Rainbow Bridge and Boone is now the Elder Statesman.  But these dogs developed a lifelong passion for the Chinook breed.  Though there are other breeds in residence, there will always be a pack of Chinooks on Mud Hill.

Dakota is one of those truly great Chinooks. Born in the one and only litter of Kathe Dunscomb's Tamanawas Chinooks, her bloodline is not common in today's gene pool.  Dakota is everything a Chinook should be, far more than just another set of 39 chromosomes.  She is athletic, agilie, and enjoys any activity or job.

Dakota produced two litters for Frontier Chinooks.  In 1998 she was bred to Ch. Winterset Heyokakaga Suka.  Her son Travis is from this litter.  Summer of 2000 she was bred again, this time to Grand Ch. PR WoodsRunner Boone.  Her sons Finnigan and Jackson are from this breeding.

Quinn

Silly, goofy Quinn is always at the center of the party.  Just ask and even though she's a senior citizen these days, she's still willing to show you her "Bunny Hop" where she stands on her hind legs and hops across the floor.  Susan co owns Quinnie with Ginger Corley of Rain Mountain Chinooks, Quinn's original breeder.  Quinnie's happy personality and show-off tendencies were perfect for competing in Flyball.  She wasn't necessarily the fastest but she had a lot of fun and earned a Flyball Dog Excellent (FDX) title.  Earning her CGC was a bit more difficult as it is for many Chinooks.  The one part of the test where their owner leaves is sheer hell for a Chinook.  But luckily the CGC rules didn't say anything about the dog can't dig a hole and Quinnie managed to get through that test by occupying herself hunting for earth worms while Susan was out of sight.  Later in life, Quinn took up Weight Pull and earned a UWP title too.

Quinnie produced two litters for Frontier Chinooks.  The first was in 2000 with Grand Ch. PR WoodsRunner Duncan; Akeena is from this breeding.  Her second litter in 2001 was with Ch. WoodsRunner Rorik, Duncan's son.  Fern and Indy are from this litter.

Calm and patient, Travis may not throw his weight around but he's a joy to live with every day.

Frontier Finnigan is missing. Please take a careful look at his photos and notify us right away if you have any clues to his whereabouts.

Akeena may look like a dog but she's really a southern belle wearing fur.

Fern not only has a good sense of humor but is also frequently the instigator of various practical jokes.

For some reason strangers find James intimidating and back away from him. This breaks his heart though as he's a very friendly guy who loves everyone he meets.

Lilah was born to be famous. The rest of the world may not have yet caught on but just ask her.

PLANNED BREEDINGS and Puppy News

After a hiatus of many years, Frontier Chinooks partnered with friends to breed and raise a litter in early 2007.  Four boys and three girls were born to mom Ch. PR Frontier Indian Summer.  Thanks to the wonders of DNA, we're still waiting for the answer to that special question -- Who's the Daddy?  Two sires were used (yes, on purpose), PR Frontier Jackson, son of Grand Ch. PR WoodsRunner Boone, is Prospective Daddy #1 and PR BrownStone Rodion of Frontier is Prospective Daddy #2.  DNA samples are currently being processed and pups are ready for their new homes.  For more information, click here to visit their webpage.

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Chihuahuas and Chinooks may sound like an odd combination but on Mud Hill, it works.  Trust me, the Chihuhuas run the show.  These are not small quivering, nervous Chihuhuas.  No, these Chihuhuas are REAL DOGS.  The run around outside, get muddy, wrestle with the big dogs, and take their pick of the very best bones.  Susan's first ever dog was a Chihuhua named Timker who she taught to do everything.  That tradition has carried over to her present Chihuhua pack.  Paco and Eli have been known to help out with hauling brush, albeit smaller twigs rather than large branches like the Chinooks, but work they do.

Eli has a large fan club.  Over the years he gained a reputation for his skills in Flyball, Agility, and performing in the Iams Super Dogs shows.  In the world of Chihuhuas, he's a giant at a whopping eight pounds.  Though elderly, blind, and deaf, he's still a member of the pack.

Paco is well known for his help with raising Chinook litters.  Paco figured out right away that it's best to get in and mix it up with the Chinook pups when they're his size.  That way, later in life when Paco demands that they serve as his pillows, they don't always remember that they are more than ten times his size.  Like Eli, Paco competed in Flyball and Agility during his prime.

Speedy is the youngster of the Chihuhua clan.  Though not a purebred (our guestimate is that there may be some Min Pin and Dachshund in his woodpile), he too has excelled in any sport Susan has exposed him to.  Though quite shy when he first joined the family as a rescue pup, he settled in, knowing a good family when he saw one.

>>>Coming Soon -- the Mud Hill Photo Gallery<<<