Rain Mountain Chinooks

First, please bear with me, as I'm not a vet, a geneticist, nor an expert in any way. The information here is strictly based on my own experience with my own personal dogs. For complete and accurate information, you will want to talk with others more knowledgeable in these areas. I've put many articles on health and genetic related topics in Articles & Interesting Information section of this website.

The Chinook is a remarkably healthy breed of dog. We are very lucky in that respect. But like all dogs, either pure or random bred, there are some genetic health issues that can crop up. With Chinooks we tend to concentrate on three areas: hips, eyes, and seizures. Other issues will crop up on a limited basis. If you do a survey of every Chinook alive today, you're sure to find one or two unique health problems that I don't discuss here but that is true of every population of every species. The issues covered below are all those that have cropped up in more than one Chinook.

I want to emphasize that the Chinook is on average a very healthy breed. If you look at the work of George Padgett, DVM, the acknowledged expert on genetic health issues in dogs, he lists the various problems seen by breed. Compared to all the other breeds in the world, the Chinook has some of the fewest genetic health problems of any breed out there. And don't think that mixed breeds are more healthy as they are not. With purebred dogs from known pedigrees, we simply have far more data on what genes they carry and what problems they are prone to. With mutts we just don't know unless the problem is actually expressed.

I am sometimes asked why I put this information up on the Rain Mountain website as it might scare someone away. But I feel that it is important that people know before they buy a pup what potential health problems could possibly occur. The problems below are all the exception and not the rul. Again, the Chinook is a very healthy breed compared to many. But if a problem does crop up, the more information you have ahead of time, the better you will be able to cope.

Hips

All dogs, especially those of medium to large size, can have hip dysplasia. What this means is that the femur is not perfectly seated in the hip socket. This problem is polygenetic -- it is not controlled by a single set of genes -- which makes it difficult to eliminate from our breeding stock.

To minimize the possibility of hip problems, all our breeding stock has hips x-rayed at least once and the x-rays submitted to the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals for rating. OFA has three board certified veterinary radiologists look over the x-rays and rate them. Excellent, Good, and Fair are considered passing with Borderline, Mild, Moderate, and so on considered not passing. The OFA website has a great deal of information on hip dysplasia, diagrams of what the various ratings look like, and a search engine that allows you to look up the hip rating of a given dog. For more information, this is the best source.

Because Chinooks are a slow growing breed, hips are not given a permanent rating until they are at least two years old. I will sometimes x-ray earlier but only as a means to screen out dogs. For example, Klickitat had her hips x-rayed when she was 14 months old. She was still intact and I also had an intact male Chinook in the house. Coping with a young bitch in season and in love can be a challenge. So I had her hips x-rayed early just to make sure they looked good enough for me to keep her intact another year. It's also a good idea in case any “accidents” happen and I find myself dealing with a teenage pregnancy. When these preliminary x-rays are done, they are submitted to OFA and given a rating but the x-ray is only reviewed by one vet instead of three and it is labeled a “Preliminary” rating.

Since a girl dog's hormones can influence a hip x-ray, the x-ray is best taken midway between a bitch’s seasons. When a bitch is in season, her hips will be more lax, looser in the hip socket. I have seen this have a significant impact on the rating a dog receives. One female I bred was x-rayed but went into season only a few days later. We were all surprised when OFA said she didn't pass the review, as she is quite an athletic dog. The x-ray was repeated three months later and the new rating was OFA Good, quite a change from the first rating.

Another situation that I've come across also has to do with Preliminary versus Permanent ratings. One female I wanted to breed would have been in season right after her second birthday and we had plans to breed her in that season. So we had her x-rayed at 22 months old and based our decision to breed on both the preliminary rating of OFA Good and the OFA ratings of the other dogs in her pedigree, which were all very strong. This is an exception to my rule but was based on good data. An x-ray taken at 12 months then at 24 months may show much variation but one taken at 22 months will be very close to that taken at 24 months.

Hip ratings can be influenced by environmental factors as well as genetics. I keep this in mind when raising pups. Contrary to what many dog food companies will tell you, I don't keep young dogs on puppy formula for a whole year. The mom dog gets fed puppy formula while she is pregnant and nursing and the pups are started on it when they are weaned. But as soon as they are eight weeks old, I transition them to adult formula food. The theory behind this is that super nutrition can cause faster than desired growth, which in turn can cause the hips to not be as strong as desired. The size of your Chinook is genetically predetermined and feeding it extra rich food will not have it be larger. It may cause the pup to grow faster but the size of the adult will be the same. I also like to see young dogs kept very lean (not skinny, just lean) so that less stress is put on the joints and skeleton. When you run your hand over their ribs it should feel like the back of your hand -- you can readily feel the bones but there is a coating of skin and just a bit of flesh.

I also don't encourage excessive jumping. Chinooks jump and bounce on their own and I don't worry about that but I don't have them running agility courses or competing in flyball competitions until they are over a year old. They can do any exercise they want on their own, but I don't push them. They may start running with our sled team as adolescents but they aren't asked to run far or to pull too much weight. They can even start practicing weight pulling as one year olds, but only as novices where they are pulling lighter loads.

Many breeders will also use various vitamins and supplements during the growing months to help encourage sound hips. I haven't had much experience with this myself but am always willing to listen to new ideas. Primarily I encourage people getting pups from me to use a good quality food, keep the pup lean, and give it a lot of exercise that is fun, easy, and natural.

In addition to OFA ratings, the Institute for Genetic Disease Control (in dogs) at one point was also doing hip ratings and was attractive to some because it would do a permanent certification at 12 months. I like the idea of rating the hips when the dog is older as I've seen too many dogs that received higher ratings at one year than they did at two years and I’d rather be safe than take chances when it's only a matter of waiting another year. Most of my dogs have been mentally far too young at twelve months to be bred so I wait to make the cut on hip health until they are two years old. GDC has now merged with OFA and does not exist independently that I am aware of.

Another method for testing hips is PennHip. In this process the dog is fully sedated for the x-rays and a number of shots are done with the hip manipulated into various positions. The dog is rated on a number of other factors in addition to how the leg bone is seated in the hip socket. I don't know of Chinook breeders relying solely on PennHip as a rating so far but many are using it in conjunction with OFA ratings.

When looking at the hips of the dogs in a pedigree and making a breeding decision, I also feel it's necessary to look at the hip ratings of a litter as a whole, not just the specific dogs I'm thinking of breeding to each other. If I have a dog that rates OFA Good but all it's littermates have failed, I'm probably going to be very careful breeding it, if it's bred at all. I would feel more comfortable breeding a dog that came from a litter where all of the siblings rated OFA Fair than one where one pup was an Excellent and the rest failed. In order to get this complete data on litters, I ask that everyone getting a pup from me have it's hips x-rayed and certified through OFA, even if the dog is spayed or neutered.

Basically what this comes down to is that when a litter of pups is in the planning stages, I've spent a lot of time looking at the hip ratings in the pedigrees. I put all this information together in a pedigree and send it out with the litter prospectus. That way you have all the same information that I do.

Eyes

Almost all breeds of dogs have occasional problems with genetic eye defects, most specifically cataracts. Chinooks are lucky that they have not been affected by other eye problems, such as PRA, that may occur in other breeds. All my breeding stock has their eyes checked by a board certified veterinary ophthalmologist prior to breeding. I've been very lucky with this to date and only have bred one dog (as far as I know at least) that has developed cataracts. We use the Canine Eye Registration Foundation, known as CERF (and pronounced "surf") to record the status of our dogs' eyes. You can get a lot more information on eye problems in dogs from the CERF website.

Cataracts in Chinooks can be classified as pinprick, indeterminate, or diffuse. Pinprick is not a concern; many dogs will have these and they do not affect whether the dog “passes” the eye screen or not. Diffuse means that the cataract is spread across the eye and will most likely affect vision in the long run. This is the overall cloudy look that you will frequently see in older dogs. Yes, it's normal in an old dog but we don't want to breed dogs that have diffuse cataracts at a young age.

Indeterminate cataracts are the middle ground. Some of these are serious and some are not. In this case you may see a dog that is considered “Breeder's Option” as far as its eyes go. For example, my male, Thunder had his eyes examined every year since he was a pup. He had a small, nearly pinprick cataract on the outside edge of one eye. It didn't change in the slightest over the years and none of his offspring to date have had any signs of eye problems. But the diameter of this cataract puts it one increment out of the pinprick category into the indeterminate category. So he is considered Breeder's Option – it is my option to decide if his eyes are of high enough caliber for breeding or not. So I have decided to go ahead and breed him though I'm careful to breed him only to bitches that have no signs of any eye problems. And just as with the hip health in the pedigrees of litters I breed, I disclose this to anyone that asks and in information that is sent out to people that are interested in using him for breeding or acquiring one of his offspring.

The eye exams also look for other heritable problems in addition to cataracts, such as retinal folds or corneal dystrophy. A more complete list can be found on the CERF website in the section titled "CERF Categories." If you explore the CERF website, you can probably find the most valid and accurate info out there on the subject of eye problems in dogs.

Neurological Disorders

Unfortunately Chinooks can suffer from a mild seizure like disorder. Yes, it does occur in my lines. Yes, I'm doing everything possible to eliminate it, as are other Chinook breeders I work with. The causes are not known but genetics play a role. To the best that I can, I don't use dogs that has had a seizure like event in my breeding program. But because of the nature of this beast, it is hard to screen for. Typically the onset may not be until the dog is three or more years old. It can also be triggered by other factors. I have one female that was fine until she was six years old. At that time she was hit by a car and suffered a serious head injury. My vet cautioned me that she could seizure and she did. Since she was six years old, she had already been bred and had two litters. Luckily only three of her offspring (out of fifteen total) have had any seizures at all and only one of those has them on a regular basis, about once every six months to a year. But that's still too many in my book. Again, I always disclose to anyone that asks, especially in the context of breeding decisions, the status of all the my dogs and those in their pedigrees that have had these seizure like events.

If you are talking to other Chinook breeders, be sure to ask them about this disorder in their lines. It's a tough subject to talk about for some reason. I don't use the term epilepsy, as I don't know for sure if that is what Chinooks have. You'll hear some people say that it's really hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). My opinion is that a seizure or seizure like event for ANY reason or cause needs to be revealed by the breeder/owner and tracked in health pedigrees and databasess. Yes, some have occurred after head injuries, some may be food allergies, some are isolated incidents. But they are still a neurological disorder and I would like to eliminate them from Chinooks to the best of my ability.

Notice that I don't call these "seizures." They are different and far milder. The typical seizure like event in Chinooks doesn't show itself until the dog is one to three years old. The events are usually mild. Usually what you will see is that the dog's leg stiffen, they lie down, and tremble. They don't usually loose consciousness or bladder/bowel control though may lick compulsively during the episode. It will last about five minutes, and then the dog will be back to its normal self as if it never happened. They may want to take a long nap. The episodes may happen only once every six months to a year but some have them more often, as much as weekly; these are the exception, most will have them only occasionally. They may be triggered by the dog being startled or over stimulated. But I have also seen a Chinook have one in her sleep. For the normal mild episode there is nothing you can do except comfort the dog. I stroke and talk to mine and maintain eye contact with them. Some people find that giving the dog some honey will shorten the seizure. A vet can't do anything unless they see the seizure happenning. If it is severe, Valium can be given to lessen it. None of my Chinooks that suffering from this disorder have ever required medication as they have them so seldom. I do feed twice a day though to minimize blood sugar fluctuations.

This subject is being actively being researched and if you'd like more information, please ask and I will refer you to people that are more knowledgeable than I am. Rain Mountain Chinooks is participating in the Canine Epilepsy Project sponsored by the AKC Canine Health Foundation. We're getting more and more infomation every month on this disorder in Chinooks. Dennis O'Brien, DVM, PhD ACVIM, (Specialty of Neurology, University of Missouri, College of Veterinary Medicine) is the lead reseearcher on this project and spoke at the 2005 Chinook National Specialty. He has written an article entitled "Chinook 'Seizures'" which I encourage you to read.

Cryptorchidism (and Monorchidism)

These are big names for a genetic condition that can affect young male pups. When boys are born their testicles are still up inside the abdomen and will descend as the pup grows up. Usually they have descended by the time the pup is eight to ten weeks old.

In some cases the testicles will not descend fully, either one or both. If one is retained, it is considered monorchidism and if both are retained it is considered cryptorchidism. In pet quality pups this is not a concern since the testicles are removed when the dog is neutered. However it can cut short the show and breeding career of a promising pup if there isn't a matched set. (Dogs with no or only one testicle are disqualified from the show ring.)

Because there is the occurrence of this disorder in Chinooks we frequently will place male pups where they will be kept intact until we know at what age the testicles descend. Some Chinooks are very slow about this and will be up to nine months old before they drop. That's not ideal but we will sometimes give Mother Nature time to work her magic in the case where one has descended.

If the testicles are both retained in the abdomen, the dog will be sterile even though he has all the urges that would go along with being intact. The testicles are outside the abdomen because the heat within it is too high for any sperm to be viable.

Allergies and Skin Problems

Allergies are difficult to diagnose and pin down as to the source. I have quite as few myself, including general hayfever, house dust and molds, dogs, and cats. Luckily they are mild and easily controlled with antihistamines. An allergy is essentially the body's immune system deciding that something totally harmless such as tree pollen, is actually a deadly invader so the system goes into high gear to kill off the invader though all that results is we are miserable with runny noses, watery eyes, and sneezing. Okay, enough about my allergies.

A few Chinook owners have told me of allergies that their dogs have. These fall into two categories: food and subsequent upset stomachs or other resulting in dry skin and possible hair loss or dry skin. Of the dogs in my house, I've only had one with any allergy sort of problem.

If your dog gets sick every time it eats something, then it probably does have either an allergy or some sort of intolerance to that food. Heck, I have problems with dairy problems myself so I don't eat much of them. Here with my gang, they have never met the food they didn't like. Beef, turkey, lamb, chicken, venison, fish, and every other kind of meat you can think of are high on their list. They get a varied diet which I think helps them to tolerate different foods without a problem. But I have heard of one or two owners that have Chinooks with beef intolerance. So where gastrointestinal problems and food allergies, my only experience is anecdotal.

As far as allergies that affect the skin, I have heard of two Chinooks that had this type of trouble. One has just recently been diagnosed and I don't have many details yet. Another is one that seems to have quite a few health problems in addition to allergies. I know that one or two other breeders are doing research on allergies so if you'd like more information, I will direct you to these folks.

As far as skin problems go, my only experience has been with Thunder and the lick granuloma, also known as a lick sore, that he had for many years. As is typical, it started with a small cut on the inside of his left hock. As dogs do, he licked it to keep it clean but he licked it so much that it never could heal completely. The licking became compulsive. I tried many different approaches to clearing it up and all of them with no success. He was too big for an e-collar as he could still reach around it to lick. I tried a neck brace that would keep him from turning but he was just too long necked for it. I tried a basket muzzle but hated that it made him look like a vicious dog. I tried bandaging it. I tried putting just about everything under the sun on it to make it taste bad but nothing was bad enough to break his licking habit. I tried treating him for allergies and it didn't work. I tried treating him for obsessive - compulsive behavior but the medications made him sleepy and lethargic so I had a dog that slept all the time and I was concerned what the meds were doing to his body in general. I tried a bunch of natural treatments and never did find one that worked. And just to fool me, every now and then he would stop licking it of his own accord and it would clear up for a while. In the end we declared a truce that as long as it was smaller than a quarter and he didn't try to lick other parts of his body excessively, I wouldn't screw around with it. If I saw it get red, he would get antibiotics and some ointment. He was better about it as long as life was calm. He also didn't like to be crated more than he had to so I had to be prepared that if he was going to be crated for any reason, he was going to lick. Mind you, he took frequent naps in the crates around the house every day but only with the doors open. And he was such a trustworthy dog that I rarely needed to crate him.

According to my vet and all the reading I have done, this type of skin problem is not really an allergy but instead is a neurological problem. So far, I only know of one other Chinook that has a lick sore along the lines of Thunder's and this dog is one of his nephews. None of his offspring have had the slightest skin problems though one of his grand pups is one of the two Chinooks I mentioned at the beginning of this section that has recently been diagnosed with environmental allergies.

Hopefully I'll be able to rewrite this section in the future and put up more conclusive information. As of this time though, I just don't know a lot about allergies in Chinooks and my personal experience is only with Thunder's lick sore as far as skin problems go. Occasionally I will see a bit of dry skin on some of the dogs, usually coinciding with them shedding, and I simply take care to add more oil and fat to their food in some way, shape, or form.

Fetal Edema

Luckily birth defects in Chinooks are rare. Over the years and many litters, I've seen a few and all of them are sad so you may want to skip this section. Most of the birth defects I've seen are one of a kind and are never seen again. The exception to this is fetal edema, also known as water puppies or walrus puppies.

When a bitch is in labor, she goes through a few stages. The first stage can be almost invisible to us humans. This is the pre labor and if the dog is a quiet one, you may not even know they are in pre labor other than a temperature drop. Holly and a few of my other girls wanted to make darned sure I knew they were in pre labor so would parade around for at least 24 hours howling, singing, and being generally irritating so that the whole world would know they were in labor. Others like Ladybug were so quiet that you had to watch carefully to see the very subtle signs. Remember this point and I'll come back to it later.

Fetal edema is when a puppy in utero has fluid going in -- blood, food from the mom dog, etc. -- but it can't get out. This typically happens in the last couple days of the pregnancy, possibly even in just the last day or so. It can't be seen on ultrasound or x-ray other than you may see the spine of the pup be almost perfectly straight rather than slightly curved (we typically x-ray the bitch just a couple days before the pups are due so that we can see how many there are and with a first time mom, make sure the size of the heads will fit through the pelvic opening).

When a bitch is in labor and labor suddenly seems to stop, we may be dealing with a pup that has fetal edema. The pup is probably twice the size of a normal pup and it is nearly impossible for the bitch to pass it through the birth canal so a c-section is called for. These pups die almost instantly even if they are born alive.

No one knows what causes this problem but luckily it is usually only one pup out of a litter and if a c-section is done in a timely fashion, all the other pups will survive successfully. We do see it run in some famililes. One theory is that it can be caused by prolonged pre labor, as I described above. So when I have a bitch that is close to labor, I watch them VERY carefully. My vet is only working part time these days and travels quite a bit so I check with him before I even do a breeding to see if he is going to be in town when the pups are due. (He's a whiz with c-sections and can have the pups out and squealing within 12 minutes of the mom dog going under anesthesia.) The last week of the pregnancy I carefully monitor the mom dog's temperature as it will drop when labor is ready to start. And if there is more than two hours between pups, I'm on the phone with the vet checking in, regardless of the day of the week or time of day.

Health Guarantees

I do the best I can to provide you with healthy, happy, and sound Rain Mountain Chinook pups. I do provide a health guarantee in our sales agreement. But I cannot promise you absolutes.

As far as hips and eyes go, I disclose to you the status of all the dogs in the pup's pedigree and explain to you why I made the decision to breed this litter. It is up to you to decide if you are willing to take on a pup with this history. I cannot guarantee that I will give you a pup that will have an OFA Excellent rating. If your pup does develop hip dysplasia, I cannot reimburse you for the cost of hip replacement surgery. Likewise I cannot guarantee that your dog will be free of any cataracts. These are chances that you take when purchasing a dog. I will do everything I can to provide you all the information you want to make an informed decision though and you can usually be assured that I am breeding dogs that I want to keep myself (I always either keep one pup for myself or place it with a friend where I will co own it out of each litter).

Probably the oddest request I got was from a woman who had previously owned a Chinook that had been killed when it was hit by a car. She had also heard of another Chinook that was killed in the same fashion. She wanted me to guarantee that being hit by a car would not kill the pup I was going to place with her. The fact that she lived abutting a busy state highway and had no fence did not seem to matter to her. Needless to say, I didn't place a pup with her. I found her request to be ridiculous. There is no way that I can guarantee things that are outside of my control.

Where the health guarantee does come into play is that I promise that I am giving you a healthy pup. It will have all shots appropriate for it's age; I try to give two sets before they leave my home. It will be free of parasites though puppies are known for eating dirt and other icky things so I recommend that you stay on top of this. But at eight or nine weeks of age, I don't know that the pup will have strong hips or be a Best in Show winner. I can estimate, guesstimate, and do the best I can but some things are out of my control.

I will offer a replacement pup in some situations. I have only had to do this once. A young male pup went to a family where he was eight weeks old and they loved him. He was a bit slow to potty train though. When he was four months old, he got a scratch near his genitals that was slow to heal. When he was taken back to vet clinic over and over for a cut that wouldn't heal, further tests were run. It was found that he had a defect in his lower spinal cord that meant that he had no sensation of his bladder and bowel. It was determined that as he grew, he would loose the ability to walk. A very difficult decision was made to put this pup down when he was only five months old. I replaced the pup at no charge with a pup from a different breeding. I didn't want to take the chance of giving this wonderful family a pup from the same lines and have the problem crop up again. They worked with me to keep me informed as this health crisis went along and provided me with all vet records. No other Chinook before or since has had this problem; it was a one in a million genetic defect.

I will replace a pup that develops a life affecting condition like this pup did. I will not demand the original pup back; by this time it has become a member of your family. Any situation like this will be negotiated between us on a case-by-case basis.

DNA Profiling

All my breeding stock is both DNA profiled and verified against the DNA profiles of the parents. This ensures that you get the dog from the lineage that we discuss. DNA profiling has been very valuable to the Chinook breed, especially when we were verifying pedigrees when transferring our registry to the United Kennel Club. You will see the title “DNA-VIP” on our pedigrees to verify that the UKC has validated the profile. This is also a means of permanently identifying the dog and was used in one situation to return a Chinook to its proper owner.

If you are interested in the use of DNA profiling, I’d be glad to give you further references.

Genetic Diversity

Some people are concerned that Chinooks will be unhealthy because our breed started from just a few individuals, then later went through a genetic "bottleneck" of only eleven dogs. However the genetic diversity of the Chinook has been measured and it is strong. Remember that many breeds of dogs we see today, especially those coming from other countries, were established here with a small number of dogs.

In 1998 doctors Jerold S. Bell, DVM and Gary S. Johnson, DVM or the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine published the "Chinook Genetic Diversity Study." Their conclusion was that the genetic diversity of the Chinook is still strong, even compared to more numerous breeds such as the Doberman Pinscher. Some of what they said in their write up is:

"Many different dogs were used in the development of the Chinook breed, and selection was based on a working phenotype, not a conformational one. The ancestral dogs linebred on to create the breed may have had significant heterozygosity and multiple alleles due to this background and could have passed this on to their offspring. the variability and standard deviation in height, weight, color, ear carriage, and eye color also document the genetic diversity in the breed."

In other words, though some people think we are nuts because our breed do not all look alike, it may be good for us in the long run. Their conclusion was:

"In spite of the recent genetic bottleneck, and not without its own share of serious genetic disorders, the Chinook breed appears robust and diverse. By addressing these genetic issues with open eyes, Chinook enthusiasts should be able to enjoy the renaissance of a healthy Chinook breed."

Please feel free to ask any health and/or genetic questions you may have. I don't claim to know all the answers but I will always refer you to further reading material or experts. And I promise that I will give you all the genetic information you could possibly want in order to decide for yourself if you really do want a Rain Mountain Chinook pup.