The Alaskan Klee Kai came about completely by accident. An
Alaskan Husky bred with a smaller dog in Oklahoma.
The litter that resulted produced puppies that resembled their Alaskan Husky
parent but on a smaller scale. Alaskan native Linda Spurlin visited family in Oklahoma
and was enamored with one of these puppies. They took the puppy, named
Curious, home to Alaska and Linda
began the process of trying to recreate the breeding which was a tough thing to
do since nobody knew what the smaller breed was. Back in Oklahoma,
Spurlin’s brother-in-law was the owner of the Alaskan Husky who produced
Curious. He also began trying to recreate the breeding, although with limited
resulted. Both Spurlin and her brother-in-law were able to trace the history of
Curious and his littermates however, the brother-in-law lost interest and he
sold his established breeding kennel to Spurlin. Each litter produced was
carefully evaluated and those that did not have the ideal characteristics that
they had set were spayed or neutered and placed in family homes. Once Spurlin began breeding entire litters that exemplified
the ideal traits she was looking for, a breed standard was drafted. This
standard is very important when a new breed is being developed to ensure that
the look and temperament of the breed is being properly cultivated. The Alaskan
Klee Kai’s standard focuses on three major factors: composition, temperament,
health. Once the breed was refined, Spurlin began offering the Alaskan Klee Kai
to the public on very strict contracts. Any dog that exhibited any unfavorable
characteristics, health problems or personality defects were required to be
spayed or neutered. Those wishing to breed the Alaskan Klee Kai were expected
to follow strict breeding standards. Spurlin turned her breeding operation over
to Eileen Gregory. Gregory was a major contributor to the development of the
Alaskan Klee Kai Association of America.
