Our Breeding Program

Chinook himself with a litter of pups.  The breed was created by breeding Chinook to females of other sled dog breeds (and some of herding ancestry), then breeding these offspring back to Chinook.

Paying extremely close attention to which dogs are bred to which is what has resulted in six generations of Rain Mountain Chinooks being successful recreational sled dogs and five generations earning show championships and performance or obedience titles, with these numbers increasing every year and with each new generation. The goal is to improve our line and the breed as a whole with every litter. Progress is slow but steady and has been an exercise in learning patience.

What does this mean to you as the person who is casually interested in the Chinook breed or looking to acquire a Chinook pup as a family pet?

If you are looking for a family pet, you want a dog that will be healthy.  If you are purchasing a purebred Chinook, you are interested in a dog that looks and acts like the descriptions you read of the Chinook both as it exists today and as it has been throughout it’s 85-year history.  You want a dog that will be healthy so that you are not spending huge sums on vet bills and spending nights worrying.  You want a dog that can accompany you on long hikes and snuggling on the couch.  You do not want a Great Dane or a Border Collie or you would purchase one (and probably not wait as long to get a pup!).

If you want a sled dog for winter mushing and dry land rigging, you want a dog that has the desire to run.  You want a dog that has endurance to run all day and the temperament to take commands.  It must be structurally sound so that it is not injured easily.

If you are looking for a dog to show, you want a dog that is as sound as a sled dog and as sweet as a family pet but also that exhibits the traits associated with a Chinook – type is the term used by dog fanciers.  The dog must not only have the structure of a Chinook but also the style and recognizable “look” of a Chinook.

If you are looking for a Chinook in hopes of future breeding, you want the soundness of a sled dog, the look of a show dog, and you want the genes that are hidden from all of us in hopes of producing great Chinooks for future owners to love and appreciate.

Breeding dogs is not done in black and white. At best, we get to work with shades of dark and light gray. When I got my first Chinook and began Rain Mountain, all Chinook breeders were desperately working simply to increase the number of Chinooks; there were only about a hundred alive in the world and even that was up from a low of twelve a few years previously.  I made many mistakes and hopefully have learned from them.  During those first years, (which I consider to be while I was raising my first two litters definitely and even into my next two), I didn't really have a picture in my mind of what I wanted other than a sound, healthy Chinook with a good temperament.

These last few years, while I’ve been learning what being a breeder entails (not that I yet know everything about breeding!), I have finally started to bring into focus my ideal Chinook, that one dog that will someday epitomize the type associated with the Rain Mountain bloodline.  I have to thank some of the people who taught me to think critically about breed type and how to best achieve it.  Nancy Cowan has been a wonderful source of information on the Walden years of the Chinook and what a historically accurate Chinook should look like.  Cindy Cooke (formerly of the United Kennel Club) has provided a wealth of information as well and encouraged many of us to take calculated chances.  Colleen McDaniel of Whistlestop Irish Water Spaniels and the Academy of Canine Behavior literally beat into me the importance of type as only a good friend can do.  The list goes on and on since the world of dog breeding is a friendly one.

The picture in my head of the ideal Chinook may not be exactly the same as other Chinook breeders and if their vision conflicts with mine, I will still strongly defend their right to develop their own ideal and breed to it.  The Chinook went through many phases in its history -- the Walden years, those under the guidance of Julia Lombard, the Perry Greene years, the black hole between Perry Greene's death and the rescue of the last eleven breedable Chinooks in 1981, and the Chinooks I know from the rebuilding years and my involvement with the breed from 1988 to the present.  What attracts me the most from these various histories and differing types is the Chinook of the Walden and Lombard years, the dogs that successfully were the backbone of transportation for the Byrd South Pole expedition and crossed the finish line first in early New England organized sled dog races.

Every piece of Chinook history must be taken in context. A very notable expert, breeder, UKC judge and author Richard Beauchamp, once commented to us after judging a Chinook specialty that we were lucky enough to have photos of the original Chinook himself to use as a template for our breeding programs.  However if you look closely at photos of Chinook you will notice that he is cow hocked and sometimes has a soft topline.  He was not the perfect dog though I won't dispute his greatness.

The Chinook breed is not just carbon copies of that one great dog.  It was actually born from the offspring of this unique dog bred out to bitches of many other breeds:  GSDs, Belgians, and many different kids of “huskies” to name a few.  We were and still are not trying to exactly duplicate this dog but are trying to recapture the essence, if that is the correct word.  In molding the Rain Mountain line, I am trying to create a better dog with more structural soundness, one that does have the general look of Chinook himself but also incorporates his progeny whom formed the first 30 years of our breed.  (I feel that the breed suffered a bit from lighter bone and over emphasis on size during the era that Perry Greene was the custodian of the breed but that is my personal opinion formed by the photos I’ve seen from this era.)

Chinook himself was approximately 85 to 90 pounds according to Eva "Short" Seeley, later owner of Chinook Kennels and the primary force behind the Alaskan Malamute breed and did some early breeding of the Siberian Husky when it first came to this country.  Many are deceived by photos of Chinook with his paws on the shoulders of Arthur Walden into thinking he was far bigger than this but Walden was a very short man.  If it were not for disagreements between the Seeleys and Waldens, the Chinook breed might be just as popular and populous today as the Malamute.

 

Left is Arthur Walden with Chinook and right is my old roommate Chad and Thunder.
Chad admits to being only 5'2" tall and Thunder was a short-legged 80 pound Chinook.

The Chinooks that I admire, that I am striving to replicate in the Rain Mountain breeding program are those dogs of moderately heavy bone, with enough leg to get them through the drifts and to give them sufficient speed. The body is slightly longer than tall so that there is room for the legs to move.  (You will notice that all breeds designed to run will tend to be slightly longer than tall.)  Without measuring or exact figures, I would say that height to length would ideally be 8::10.  Bone is sturdy but not overly heavy so as to be clumsy or impede speed.  Legs are long enough to get the dog through snow.  The double coat is adaptable -- in cold climates and winter months, it will be thick; in warmer climates and summer, very little undercoat grows.  The thick tail is carried in a sickle over the dog's back when alert and has visible brushings.  I'm not an expert on standards so I suggest you refer to the official Standard for the UKC Chinook for the fine points.  This discussion is merely my beliefs. Rain Mountain Chinooks are bred to the UKC Standard and our interpretation of that standard.

Perhaps the most notable physical trait of the Chinook is its head: broad and sturdy with plenty of room for a brain. The muzzle is moderate and slightly blunt with an aquiline nose.  The nose should never be pointed or resemble that of a German Shepherd too closely.  The Chinook head shows the influence of the St. Bernard and/or other mastiff style breeds that went into the original Chinook himself. A female head is finer and definitely more feminine but should still maintain the same outline and proportion.

I don’t have my ideal Chinook today.  I do have pieces of my ideal but these pieces are spread around on a number of different dogs.  You’ll see me refer repeatedly to my "breeding program."  By this, I mean specific plans I have for breedings involving multiple generations of Rain Mountain dogs to those of other breeders.  The end goal is to produce on a consistent basis Chinooks that closely approach my ideal.

The third criterion for whether a given Chinook will be bred is its physical conformation.  Chinooks used for breeding MUST have good conformation.  Well put together fronts (the shoulders, chest, and front legs) that allow them to have reach and drive when they are pulling.  Strong, level toplines (the outline of the back) that are well muscled.  A dog with a roached or swayed back doesn't have the structural strength to pull a sled. Think of a poorly built dog as a building with a roof falling in; the dog and the building must have structural integrity.  They also need to have good rear assemblies -- well muscled thighs, good rear angulation (the angle of the thigh, to the hock, to the ground), and legs that when viewed from the rear are straight rather than going in or out at the hocks.  

Without good physical conformation, a Chinook can't move well so movement is carefully examined.  When they are moving, the front legs reach out about as far as the end of the nose; this reach requires strong shoulders.  The rear legs should not overstep the front when you see the dog's side gait.  When looking at the dog coming towards you or going away from you, the dog's paws should be landing nearly in a straight line; imagine looking at their tracks in the snow and you would see the impression of the four paws in an almost straight line.  This is called single tracking.  Even though most of our Chinooks are suburban family pets, we still want them to be able to do the job they were designed to do and that is pull sleds.  A sled dog has to be able to move freely and with a minimum of effort.  Your pet may be even more active than a show dog, what with wrestling with the kids, hiking with the family, and other activities, so even pet quality pups are bred to meet these criteria.

A checklist of requirements for breeding would look like this:

• Good temperament.
• General good health.
• Hips screened by OFA and rated Fair (average), Good, or Excellent.
• Eyes that have been screened by a veterinary ophthalmologist and certified as clear of genetic defects.
• No observed genetic health problems such as seizures.
• A healthy pedigree for at least three generations back that include the above health screens.
• Excellent conformation.
• Excellent movement.
• Outside evaluation by objective experts.
• Working ability.

Each breeding is also scrutinized to make sure that the combination of the two dogs is appropriate.  More detail on how we go about making these decisions is covered in two articles:  Eventer, March 2002 - "Studley Do-Right Does His Paperwork -- Responsibilities of the Stud Owner" talks about how we look at girls that are candidates for being bred to our boys.  Eventer, Summer 2002 - "Looking for Mr. Gooddog -- Selecting the Right Stud for your Bitch"  talks about how we choose studs for our girls.

The Role of Conformation Showing and Working Ability

The only dog show the general public may see is the annual Westminster Kennel Club Show on television.  What you see in these televised events is the show biz, the dogs being campaigned nationally with financial backers and professional handlers.  The real world of the dog show isn't seen on television or under the bright lights.  Instead it happens in the breed ring, the competition that happens before the representatives of each different breed meet in the final showdown for Group and Best In Show.

To breeders, conformation showing is about the individual dogs in each age class and how that dog looks compared to others of its breed, gender, and age.  This is where the critical and hopefully objective evaluation of our breeding stock takes place.  THIS is what conformation showing is all about.  Judges, who have passed tests in order to be certified as such, look over the dogs by gender and age.  They evaluate them by their structure, movement, and how closely they meet the Standard for the UKC Chinook.  If a dog is a good representative of the Chinook breed, it may win points towards a Championship or Grand Championship.  During this process many a promising pup will show faults that will mean it doesn't pass the cut for breeding.

The reason for this evaluation is simple -- kennel blindness.  Of course I think my Chinooks are the most wonderful, beautiful, and perfect.  I am horribly prejudiced in favor of my own dogs.  Conformation showing lets reality slap me in the face all too often.  Will the dog I think is a beautiful Chinook stand up to the scrutiny of someone who doesn't know me or even my dog's name, much less how gorgeous he is when he sees a squirrel on the back fence.  These judges can be tough and have keen eyes.  The smallest fault in a dog's gait may be indicative of an underlying structural fault.  It may not be readily visible until the judge sees other Chinooks that move well, making it obvious that my dog is not as good as others.

Shows also let us see what other Chinook out there look like.  Much of the fun of a show happens during the "hurry up and wait" between classes.  UKC shows have very much the picnic atmosphere.  We catch up with each other, play with the dogs, and plan future breedings both fantasy ones and real ones.  At least once a year, we try to get out to national shows or gatherings so we can see what the competition looks like.  What is competition today may contribute to the Rain Mountain bloodline next year.

Nearly every dog used in the Rain Mountain breeding program will have been shown and obtained a championship.  The championship will mean that a number of different judges have found the dog to be of excellent quality.  Trust me, if a dog is not a good specimen of the breed, it will not win the title. You don't get bonus points just for showing up often enough.

Along these same lines, dogs used in the Rain Mountain breeding program are also checked for working ability.  Do they have the drive, instinct, and capability to pull a sled?  After all, Chinooks are sled dogs.  Even a suburban family pet may be called upon to pull the kids on a Flexible Flyer around the neighborhood during a winter's snowfall or to pull a wagon to the beach loaded with a picnic lunch during the summer.

I make no claim at all to be a skilled musher.  The Rain Mountain sledding team is a team of dilettantes.  We dabble in recreational sledding.  On winter weekends, we load the sled on the roof of the minivan and venture to the Cascade Mountains for a few hours of fun and seeing the countryside.  There are many who are successfully racing Chinooks competitively but I am not one of them and doubt I ever will be.  I'll leave the racing to those more skilled than I am:  Bob Jones of WoodsRunner Chinooks, Rick Strle of Bear Creek Racing, Debbie Premus of Boreayl Chinooks, and Jessica Maurer of GreatMountain Chinooks. Chinooks from Rain Mountain do run on many of these teams and do quite well.  My slogan is that I raise very nice pups for other people to race.

But I do give each Chinook I'm going to use in my breeding program a trial in harness.  I want to see that they have some intrinsic sense to pull the sled and that they have the joy of running.  There are times when a dog used for breeding may live in a warm climate or the owner doesn't have the opportunity for sledding or rigging (running a team of dogs with a cart).  In these cases I look for dogs that work in other areas.  For example, a dog that competes in agility has the ability to excel in a fast sport requiring an athletic build.  Herding is the same -- the dog works away from the handler, following directions with speed and skill.  In competitive obedience trials Chinooks must display a high level of intelligence and teamwork.  A Chinook competing in flyball must have speed and jumping ability, again requiring a sound structure and good mind.  So not every Chinook demonstrates its working ability by pulling a sled.

If you are in the process of looking for your first Chinook pup or are already to the point that you are searching for the best stud to use in a breeding, be sure to ask all Chinook breeders about their dog(s) record in the show ring and it's working ability.  If they can't give you this information, look closely at the breeding stock and ask why.

We (as I'm very much assisted by Carie here) spend a great deal of time looking at pedigrees of both real dogs and dogs that exist only in my imagination when making breeding decisions.  The gist of our breeding program is pedigree analysis but it is accompanied by hands-on evaluations of the dog that comprise the names on paper.  It has taken me many years to learn what little I know and there’s still much I don’t know.  I’ve been lucky enough to talk with many of the country’s great breeders and attend seminars where they freely impart information.  Reading books on the science of canine genetics sometimes makes me feel like I’m still an undergraduate cramming for finals.  Computers have been a boon to dog breeders as they are great for running pedigree programs that allow us to generate all sorts of pedigrees with a great deal of data on health included.

Two words are important:  phenotype and genotype.  Phenotype is the traits the dog displays such as golden colored fur, a black mask, and pinprick ears.  Genotype is the genes the dog carries.  For example, his ears may be carried erect but perhaps one parent had down ears and the other helicopter ears.  Genotype and phenotype for a given trait might be the same – a Chinook with up ears having two parents with up ears – or they may be different such as the differing earsets of pups in a single litter.  We can see phenotype but we can't see genotype.  The only way to even begin to guess what genotype the dog has is to know the phenotypes and genotypes of the dogs behind him his pedigree and that of the pups he has sired.  If it was all as simple as basic dominant and recessive, life would be easier.  But most of the genetic traits we deal with are polymorphic -- they are controlled by a group of genes rather than just a single set.

I have access to many Chinook pedigrees from the piles of papers I’ve collected over the years and the many contacts I’ve made with other Chinook breeders all over the country.  This chore is much easier now that the United Kennel Club has taken over maintaining our registry.  I’ve also made it a point to travel as much as I could so that I can see the dogs “in the fur” that are the names on these pedigrees.  The first ever Chinook specialty was held over a very cold April weekend in Dayton, Ohio.  Marra Wollpert was the driving force behind it and she and her husband Neil deserve HUGE credit and appreciation for the existence of our breed today.  At Wollpert’s home I was able to meet Joyce Maley, Gail Skoglund, Connie Jones, and many others who have become wonderful friends.  Many of the dogs I now see in pedigrees many generations back were at that first Chinook event.  I have taken almost one trip a year to either a Chinook gathering or to visit other breeders, frequently to see litters of pups.  It has been very well worth the cost of travel, not to mention a heck of a lot of fun.

Seeing these Chinooks gives me the chance to see the dog move, to feel its fur, and see how it behaves with its owner and in the hectic environment of a show or weight pull or just hanging around the house.  After seeing a few generations, I can begin to guess as to what the dog's genotype is based on knowing its relatives and the dog itself and learning more about its life.  This helps me make breeding decisions.  Since I have seen all the relatives, I can guess as to the genotype of the dogs I'm using for breeding.  A good example is if you see me surrounded by my paternal cousins -- we are all a group of medium to slightly smaller adults with light brown or blonde hair and slight builds and mostly brown, green, or hazel eyes.

Over time I’ve met some great Chinooks, dogs that I would like to see again in today's Chinooks.  Some dogs stand out – Backroads Kayak, the dogs in the first Hurricane litter born in 1987, Bering, Honey, and Siri; Kodiac, Kiska, and Riki; Kiana, and Ayla.  Most of these dogs are in the pedigrees of the Chinooks I own and breed now.  So by knowing what these dogs looked like, by knowing what their offspring looked like, and by knowing my own dogs for five generations now, I can put this all together when I look at a pedigree. 

In the past fifteen years I have seen the breed improve in leaps and bounds.  Size has increased, coloring is richer and more vibrant, and coats are thick and lush.  The wide variety of type has narrowed and gotten far more consistent.  Dogs are far healthier and living longer.  Temperaments have improved dramatically with far less incidence of shyness that I saw in many earlier Chinooks.  In the past we had very few dogs, not all good ones, and only a few truly great ones.  Now I see many more Chinooks, most quite good, and a growing number of near great dogs.  We won't know how great they are until we see what they produce, which is how we measure the greatness of the Chinooks in past years.

Genetic diversity is quite important.  We want to preserve as many of the Chinook's genes as possible while at the same time minimizing genetic defects such as poor hips or the tendency to have "Chinooks seizures".  Luckily despite the various bottlenecks in our breeding population throughout history, a study done at Tufts University found the Chinook to have strong genetic diversity on par with other far more common breeds like the Doberman.  Chinooks are lucky that we have the Chinook Owners Association Cross Program which provides us with great genetic diversity within our breed.  I have not participated in the Cross Program myself but I am a strong supporter.  I am happy to have placed pups in homes where they will be used with the Cross Program when they grow up and I hope to participate more in the future.  I have worked to make sure that the genes of valuable dogs are not lost by sponsoring breedings of Chinooks from less common bloodlines such as those from North Wind Riki of Bear Creek, a wonderful Chinook who only produced one purebred litter.

Breeding Methodologies

Many people hear about terms such as in-breeding, line-breeding, and out crossing and don't have a full understanding as to exactly what the terms mean.  I've frequently heard the comment that "such and such a breed has been ruined by inbreeding" or "all show dogs are so inbred that they have horrible health."  These comments are not true.  Inbreeding and line-breeding can be sound practices in animal husbandry and let's face it, breeding dogs is animal husbandry.  Inbreeding refers to the mating of a dog with either a parent or sibling.  Line-breeding is one step out, such as aunt to nephew or great uncle to niece.  When used wisely both are sound practice as they mean the offspring will be predictable -- fewer wild card genes will be swimming in the gene pool.  The Chinook, like every other modern breed of dog, was based on initial inbreedings and line-breedings.  Chinook himself was bred to various sled dogs and the offspring were bred back to Chinook himself or to his other offspring in order to limit the gene pool to that which is evidenced by dogs that share a common look and traits -- big golden dogs that are friendly and trainable and like to pull sleds in our case.

When it is appropriate to use inbreeding or line-breeding is far too big a topic to discuss here and I'm still learning myself.  For here and now, let it suffice to say that poor breeding is far more detrimental to a group of dogs than inbreeding.  Inbreeding in animals is not the same as inbreeding in humans so we can't confuse the prohibitions of one with another.  If you'd like more information on this subject, drop me a note and I'll give you references that are for more intelligent than I will ever be on the subject.  In the meantime, a breeder should always be able to answer the question, "Why did you choose to breed these two dogs to each other?"

So what breeding methodology do we use?  Well, all of the above and more, with a little intuition thrown in.  My first criterion is health.  Next is sound structure.  After that, it comes down to what I believe the offspring will look like based on what I know is behind the dog -- what genes I have seen expressed in their relations.  Each breeding is approached one at a time while still keeping in mind the big picture of where this specific breeding will take Rain Mountain in future years.

From here you may want to review the information in Getting Your Rain Mountain Pup if you are actively looking for a Chinook.  Or if you're interested, the various breedings that comprise the Rain Mountain line are presented in Over the Generations.  Or return to the top and choose where to go next.  Feel free to drop me a note if you want more info on anything here.