From the time Lady was born, Connie Jones (WoodsRunner Chinooks) and I shared dreams of what pups from her and Thunder would be like. Moose is exactly what I had hoped for. He combines the great bone structure of his dad, Thunder, with the grace and beautiful black markings given him by Lady. Moose's temperament is also everything that we hoped for. He has the sweetness of his dam and the silliness and sense of humor of his sire. Though Moose seems like a silly pup in a very large body, he's also very intuitive and respoonsible (see the story below). A better companion for two little girls could not be found.

The first time I got to see Moose running with a sled team, my socks were knocked off (and it was darned cold standing there barefoot in the snow!).  Though he was just 14 months old (read, very, very silly), he was determined to GO!  I had no choice but to move hiim from the wheel position to lead as he was over running the rest of the team.  Once I explained to him that he was not to stop and smell every tree (or, let's admit it, pee on each one he passed), he decided he was enjoying himself.  By his second time in harness, he was running on my power team in co lead with his grandmother, Holly.  He also had his first turn at weight pulling and again, knocked my socks off (at least I wasn't standing in snow).  I was determined that we would start him slow and not let him pull much weight since he was still a baby.  But we had to have about 500 pounds on the cart just to slow him down.

Moose is GREAT with kids, as you'll read about below.  We were able to hook Moose to the sled and send him out with two novices, 10- and 7-year old girls.  Moose was able to give the girls a fun ride while still being courteous to their requests.  I co own with Sean Chambers; Sean is also the custodial parent, so to speak. Sean got hooked on Chinooks though those of his mother, Pam Chambers of Springcreek Chinooks. I'm lucky enough to have Moose visit with me here on a regular basis, thanks to Sean and his wife Darcy living here in Seattle and being very willing to share their boy.

Though I only met him in his final years, Moose reminds me very much of his grandfather, North Wind Kiska, but with stronger rear structure.  Now, as a mature guy, he weighs in at a 90 to 100 pounds.

Moose is working on his weight pull title and it's not strength that is the problem.  He is far too much like his dad sometimes and tries to be a comedian.  If he thinks he can get a reaction out of me by acting goofy, he will.  Have you ever seen a dog giggle?  Moose can giggle just like his dad did.  If he forgets to be a comedian, he is a great puller.  He also has done some carting and is a hit at the local grade school when he pulls the cart up to pick up his girls at the end of the day.

Moose has sired one litter with Grand Ch. PR Frontier Akeena and we are now watching their pups grow.  We have not yet decided whether to use him at stud again.  In the meantime, he has a very important job raising Andrea and Brittany.

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Baby Hero
by Ginger Corley
(Originally printed in the Chinook Quarterly, Fall 2001.)

Moose had a rough start in life. Complications during delivery meant that only he and his brother John John survived. Then when Moose was just six weeks old, an accident resulted in him loosing the sight in one eye. Nonetheless, he was a happy boy and at ten weeks old went to join his new family, Sean and Darcy Chambers and their two young daughters, six-year-old Brittany and one year old Andrea. Sean and Darcy had fallen in love with the Chinooks that Sean's mom, Pam Chambers of Spring Creek Chinooks, owns and thought that their daughters were ready for their own dog - of course it had to be a Chinook. He was named Rain Mountain Yakama Pride to reflect the Chambers previous home in the Yakima area of central Washington State.

Moose and Andrea quickly proved that special bond between Chinooks and children. Though Andrea was only 14 months old when Moose joined the household, they quickly became fast friends. Andrea's first words were "doggy" and Moose". I called to check on Moose after he had been in his new home a few days and asked Darcy if there had been any incidents of nipping. Darcy quickly replied that Andrea had only bit Moose once and had been quickly reprimanded.

Moose's protective instincts where Andrea is concerned became quickly apparent. Sean and Darcy's home is on three levels: Brittany's bedroom upstairs, a garage/workshop downstairs, and the other rooms on the main floor. Like all moms of toddlers, Darcy has to keep a constant eye on Andrea. But during a brief moment of putting laundry away, she was quickly alerted of trouble by Moose's barking. She ran out of the bedroom to find Moose had blocked Andrea from going down the steps to the workshop. He kept his body (like his name implies, Moose is a very large Chinook pup) between Andrea and the stairway while barking to tell Darcy that trouble was only a moment away. Was it coincidence or did he know that Andrea could hurt herself by venturing down the stairs to the workshop?

By the time Moose was five months old, he'd decided that the best place to sleep was on the floor of the master bedroom next to Darcy. Early one morning, he woke Sean up by scratching at the bedroom door. It was not quite 5 am and Sean, not quite awake, figured that Moose needed to go outside, so he sleepwalked to the backdoor to let the pup out. But as Sean headed for the backdoor, Moose would go no further than the door to Andrea's bedroom. He scratched at the door, barked, and refused to go outside. The noise awoke Darcy. "Sean, he's trying to tell us something."

Darcy ran to the baby's room. Sure enough, Andrea was in trouble. The family had been plagued by colds recently and Andrea had come down with a severe case of croup and strep in the night. Her throat was so swollen she couldn't call for her parents and was having trouble breathing. Andrea was rushed to the emergency room where the doctor's were able to open her breathing passages with an injection. It was not long 'til she was back at home, happily playing with her puppy.

Even though I don't have small children, Moose was able to transition to a home with kids easily. Much of the thanks for that goes to my niece Sarah Brimm (almost age ten now) who helps socialize my pups by bringing all her friends over to play while they are growing up. The intrinsic Chinook gentleness combined with the herding influence of their German and Belgian Shepherd ancestors seems to be the perfect combination for small children.

Today Moose is a happy and huge nine-month-old Chinook boy who is the spitting image of his dad, Thunder, though with the beautiful dark markings of his mom, Ladybug. His favorite game to play is tug-of-war with Brittany while little Andrea pulls too - on Moose's tail. Moose may not have the greatest show career because of his eye injury but he will always be Best of Breed to the Chambers family.

Note:  Moose has continued his life as a hero and in 2003 woke the family up to warn them that a water heater had burst in the basement!
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