Crossbreeding with Chinooks
The Chinook breed has a powerful and complex history. To understand crossbreeding, it helps to step back and look at the development and life of this breed. To read a brief history of the breed, please visit the Chinook Owners Association (COA) history page at History - Chinook Owners Association.
In 1981 the Chinook was recognized by and registered with the United Kennel Club (UKC). Over 400 purebred Chinooks are registered with the UKC. The COA is the UKC Chinook national breed club.
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Chinook Owners Association CrossBreeding Program
In 1997, the Chinook Owners Association (COA) launched a CrossBreeding Program in collaboration with the UKC and with guidance from geneticist, Dr George Padgett. The program was developed a few years after the Chinook was officially recognized by the UKC with 2 key objectives:
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Accomplish inclusion in the UKC registry those Chinook who were either known crosses or of unverifiable parentage
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Reduce the incidence of hip dysplasia in the breed
Three crosslines, whose descendants recognized as purebred Chinooks, began with a breeding of 3 purebred Chinooks to:​​​
Glendon’s Sweetie
Shepherd-Husky-Lab hybrid
Amorok’s Top Gun
Siberian Husky
Shiloh
Malumute hybrid
​By the early 2000s, many of the descendants of these crosslines had met program requirements enabling them to be registered with the UKC purebred Chinook registry. Data was showing improved hip health results among Chinooks who completed these specific health assessments.
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Chinook Breed Conservation Program (CBCP)
At the same time, when monitoring the breed health, breeding, and genetics, the COA recognized objectives that had not yet been clearly articulated, much less met in order to create a sustainable, healthy gene pool for the breed.
In 2017, the COA again worked with geneticists and the UKC to develop the Chinook Breed Conservation Program (CBCP). The program’s goal is to “maintain a healthy, genetically sustainable Chinook population, with the breed’s historical temperament, working ability, structure, and appearance.”
To review the CBCP program objectives, podcast, program description, and application process, you can visit the COA’s website at Chinook Breed Conservation Program (CBCP) - Chinook Owners Association.
Meet the generations of Chinook crosses and subsequent purebred Chinooks
Through this section of the website, we’ll introduce you to GreatMountain Chinooks descending from Glendon's Sweetie (Dog Zero*) x Timbermist's Yukon Jack - both crossbred and purebred Chinooks.
GreatMountain Chinooks began to steward the “Sweetie line” beginning in the late 1990s as part of the COA's first crossbreeding program. In pages dedicated to each generation of that line, you’ll meet the dogs and see what factors contributed to each generation’s breeding decisions.
In 2017, GreatMountain welcomed Vanguard North Brother Mtn into our pack. Brother (aka Brud) is a first generation cross from the CBCP first crossbreeding line between a Chinook and a Tamaskan Sled Dog. While you can ‘meet’ Brud in another area of this website, we can delve a bit deeper into the line he emerged from and subsequent generations.
* Dog Zero is the name for the non-Chinook that is bred with a purebred Chinook to initiate a cross line.