Cloudburst Chinooks, named for my former street of residence, Cloudburst Hill, honors my mother's yearning to own a Chinook and her love of breeding. My mother learned of this wonderful breed in a 1940's magazine article, then took my sister and me to the Waldoboro (Maine) Chinook Kennels every summer to admire the great Perry Greene dogs.

In 1917 this breed of dog was created when Arthur Walden, in an effort to find a better sledge (weight pulling) dog, bred a black and white sled dog to a Saint Bernard cross. Of the three resulting puppies, none looked like either parent and all became excellent sledge dogs. So Walden continued his experiment by breeding those three (one of whom was named Chinook) to each other, to German Shepherd Dogs, Belgian Sheepdogs and other sled dogs.

Walden took sixteeen Chinooks to the South Pole at Admiral Byrd's request and the dogs proved themselves invaluable. Byrd reports on their stamina in his book Little America. After the expedition, the entire breed was managed by one person, first Julia Lombard then a north woodsman named Perry Greene. In order to maintain control, Greene sold only spayed females. After his death, the breed was nearly lost, but three families found the remaining dogs and began a breeding program in 1982. [For more details about the history of the breed, see the Chinook Owners Association web site at www.chinook.org.]

My family like many learned of the breed through various articles in popular magazines. Once my mother discovered the Chinook, it was the only dog she wanted. She took me and my sister to visit summer after summer and the three of us spent the traditional night on the property and we were "approved" for puppy purchase. The $1000 price stopped us.

In 1959, mother decided it was time to spend the money, made arrangements by phone with Perry, and drove from Richmond, Virginia, to Maine, as excited as we had ever seen her. But she was unsettled by Perry's behavior when she arrived; she reported to us that he seemed irrational and contradictory (and she had known him for years). Because the contract she would have to sign said Perry could visit the owner's home at any time during the life of the dog and, if he didn't like what he saw, he would take the dog, my mother couldn't justify the purchase. She drove from Waldoboro to New Hampshire, bought a Siberian Husky from Eva B. "Short" Seeley, and my family raised Siberians for the next twenty years.

Mother bred her Kiska twice and so adored the pups that, when they reached the age to be sold, she would advertise puppies for sale, then avoid the phone so no one could reach us! She gave my sister a puppy from the second litter who became an AKC Champion and a regular musher on Charlie Posey's New Hampshire sled team.

	When I married in 1969, I got my own Siberian, Tamarak, from YesoPac Kennels where my mother had bred Kiska. I struggled constantly with his escaping the fenced yard. Before he was two he'd been killed by a car. So I went back to Charlie Posey and bought a female. She escaped AND was destructive: she killed the rabbit next door and the cat across the street. I was panicked when she fled.
Baranoff

I was determined to get a litter from her, but we had to breed her during three different heats cycles before getting a pregnancy. She delivered seven georgeous male pups on the seventh day of the seventh month in 1977! I kept a puppy (named Baronoff), placed the mother, and both were killed by cars in the next fourteen months.

I was devastated by the death of that third Siberian. He had two conformation ribbons and two wins in obedience when he died. I knew I'd never own another Siberian, but grief had prevented my making much progress toward another dog. Then in 1978 I attended my husband's Board meeting in Seattle where I overheard another wife talking about dogs. I later asked her what kind she had; her answer was Chinooks. I couldn't believe my ears; she couldn't believe I'd heard of them.

She is Judy Orne. She and her husband had paid to kennel the remaining Chinooks at Sukee Kennels when the dogs had to leave Waldoboro after the Greenes' deaths. Judy had several dogs in her Connecticut home, and wanted to sell me a pup, but I was working full time. We settled on my taking a five year old who had been altered and I drove the following month from Maryland to her Connecticut home to pick up the dog.

	The Wollperts had bred Siri once, but she became quite ill after whelping and was spayed immediately. One of her offspring, Muskeg, shows up in many pedigrees: he was bred repeatedly and he looked JUST like his mother. Siri came home with me in August of 1984 at nearly two and a half years of age and began methodically eating my living room. Obedience school solved that problem and she became the first Utility trained Chinook.
Siri
At the 1990 Chinook Round-up, I bought my next Chinook from Joyce Maley and Guy Frame, Dixieland Shageluk. He was the only purebred Chinook to hold the Utility title, and was a devoted companion for well over twelve years.
		Shageluk

The Wollperts had become good friends; my husband and I socialized with them whenever they were east or we were near Ohio. Once when I was visiting, Marra invited Debbie Premus to bring her 6 month old pup, Boreal's Tok O' The Town Sinook, to show me. It was adoration at first sight. Immediately I said, "I MUST have a puppy from that dog!" Marra explained that Tok was a Chinook Cross: his mother was a purebred Chinook, Celina, and his father was a red Siberian Husky. His owner would be glad to breed him if I could find someone willing to breed a purebred female to a cross. I took on the challenge. The previous summer I had visited with Connie and Bob Jones who were breeding Chinooks in Portland ME and owned five. When I wrote to ask that they breed one of their dogs to a cross, they took six weeks to respond. They reported to me later that they talked about it nearly every day of that period. Finally they agreed and selected WoodsRunner Lucille to breed to Tok.

Alyeska was my pick of that litter. She has been a therapy dog, a wheelchair service demonstration dog, my companion at work, an obedience competitor, an actress and a sometime musher as well as whelping two Cloudburst litters.

My purpose in breeding Alyeska was to create superior dogs that would eventually be classified as purebred Chinooks (see Cross Program: www.chinook.org). The Chinook Owner's Association's agreement with the United Kennel Club states that at the fourth generation (if each generation is bred to pure) the pups would be considered ninety three per cent Chinook. That generation could, at two years of age, apply to be classified as purebred Chinooks IF they meet the UKC standard and health requirements.

Alyeska

Alyeska was bred first to Winterset Dawson producing five precious puppies in June of 1997. Each was sold and two were labeled as potentially breedable, although only one was eventually bred. Eighteen months later, Alyeska was bred to Northdown Kusko Kwim producing ten fabulous pups, seven with the longer coat Alyeska carries.

Aleyska

One of the puppy purchasers was Joann Blackman, a friend I had met in obedience class the previous year. She was a groomer by trade, owned six dogs of different breeds, and was training a Standard Poodle in the top level of obedience, so we attended some dog shows together. She had a deposit down on Labrador Retriever puppy she planned to train for obedience when she met me and shortly thereafter Chinook's WoodsRunner pack.

The latter confirmed her decision to purchase a Chinook, and she got Cloudburst Crossing Snowy River, the best potential breeder from Alyeska's second litter. When River was bred, Joann asked to be part of Cloudburst Chinooks instead of starting a kennel name, and we've been making kennel decisions and supporting each other's breedings ever since.

River was first bred to GR CH 'PR' WoodsRunner Duncan producing a litter of six puppies including two stars: Cloudburst Walden's Quest and Cloudburst Kennebec River. Both earned purebred status in early 2001 and became Champions in their first three shows. Both were on the United Kennel Club's Top Ten Chinooks for the year 2004. A third member of this family, Cloudburst Monocasy, may be bred. River's second breeding was an artificial insemination from UKC CH ARBA UCI INT CH Englewood Kanati and only one pup was born, Cloudburst Wonalancet (Legend), but he is a fine specimen of the breed, and like his father, should be a star in the conformation ring and a desirable stud. River's breeding to Duncan was repeated in 2002 creating seven puppies for whom we have high hopes when they reach two years of age and can apply for purebred status.

Joann & River

Richalene Kelsay of ThunderPaws Chinooks agreed to sustain the CrossBreeding program by using a Cloudburst first litter dog with her top winning female, 'PR' ARBA UCI INT CH Boreal's Patent Pending (Chaska), Cloudburst Crossing Starblaze (Songo) was the chosen stud and they created eight puppies in November of 2000. The "top dog", chosen by Richalene during puppyhood as best of litter, Karelia was the first crossbred Chinook to apply for purebred status through the United Kennel Club's recognition of the Chinook CrossBreeding Program. She attained purebred status and a conformation Championship in May—our first "cross-to-pure" became a U.K.C. "Total Dog" in just a few months!

Karelia was bred to GR CH CKC ARBA UCI Nat'l Internation'l CH 'PR' Hurricane Tobruk producing five puppies in March 2004. One of those earned a conformation Champion title by eight months of age: Cloudburst Kalhaia. A second Cloudburst puppy from the same litter, Cloudburst Faeden Chulali (Chili) earned her Championship shortly thereafter, and BOTH were listed in the United Kennel Club's Top Ten Chinooks for July 2005. We have high hopes for others in the litter. Karelia continued her obedience work after the puppies left, and earned her Companion Dog Excellent title in January 2005.

Future plans include breeding Monocacy and breeding Karelia again, as well as breeding the several offspring we have from previous breedings. Cloudburst is proud of its contribution to the breed through the cross program—we believe we've added excellent genes through the red Siberian Husky out of Boreayl Kennels who started our cross program. In addition, we think we've clearly demonstrated the intelligence of the breed through our many titles in the obedience ring.

Back To Top