BrownStone Chinooks is devoted to fostering the excellent health and wonderful temperament of Chinook dogs. Hard-working Chinooks excel in many activities such as agility, obedience, back yard play, hiking, dog powered sports, search and rescue, and as service dogs. The affectionate Chinook is an excellent family dog matching its activity level to that of its companions - be it strenuous exercise or snuggling on the couch.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Memorial Day

Memorial Day we pause to remember the fallen soldiers who gave their lives to keep us free.
 We also pause to remember loved ones who have gone before us.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With it's whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still)
When the spirit that answered your every mood is gone - where it goes - for good,
You will discover how much you care, and will give your heart to a dog to tear.
Rudyard Kipling

CH,"PR" Frontier RainDancer McKenzie, CGC, HIT, NJ, NA
(McKenzie)
04/29/2007-10/14/2014
CH "PR" BrownStone Willamette, CGC, HIT, NSD 
(Silly Willy)
12/11/2003-05/22/2012
"PR" BrownStone Iditarod Galena (with mother Cedar)
03/13/2010 - 03/15/2010
"PR" BrownStone Lupin
12/11/2003 - 02/27/2017
Cedar, Koyuk and Trask take pause in Nature's red,white & blue

Monday, May 22, 2017

Making Nookies

(Warning: Possibly R-rated and maybe a bit more than you ever wanted to know.) First and foremost in breeding a rare breed of dogs is to know as much as possible about the genetic background on both the bitch and stud. Breeders used to just examine of pedigree for close relatives to avoid. The Chinook breed has a wonderfully, giving, genetic geek, Karen Hinchy, with a huge genetic and health database. We have drawn multiple DNA samples which Karen uses to guide to the best possible match. Mountain Thunder Tyee was picked as the best potential match for BrownStone Iditarod Koyuk over 3 years ago but I have put off breeding for various reasons not related to the dogs. Mountain Thunder Chinooks and BrownStone Chinooks have talked for years about wanting to combine our genetic lines and fortunately Tyee was still intact and waiting in Seattle.
Dogs are only fertile three days each cycle.  You can only tell if she is ovulating with a (very expensive) lab draw. Previously Koyuk had been bred day 11. Day 10, I had her lab drawn and it showed she was at 2ng/ml which meant she was getting ready - you breed after they reach 5. Last time she went from 2 to 9 in one day. I made an appointment with a Seattle repo-vet for Monday morning and booked a room in the Seattle area - who knew that Mother's Day the hotels would be full. The extended stay hotel I ended up in actually worked out quite well as far as location. Sunday afternoon I packed up Koyuk and headed north - who knew that DOT would choose Mother's Day to paint and pave major freeway bridges? The first hour was just getting out of Eugene. Before Salem, I was parked on the freeway. All of the I-5 traffic had been rerouted around Portland.  Traveling at a top speed of 35mph I finally made it to Washington 4 hours later.  At that point the speed slowed to around 20mph. I didn't know that U2 was holding a concert in Seattle that evening. Seemed all of Portland knew and they were parked on the freeway with me as they headed North. Going slow wasn't too bad since it was also raining hard and even hailing.
We got to the hotel after 9 and tried to get some sleep. Unused to anything but quite woods noises we were not prepared for a hotel full of people and dogs and traffic noise at the confluence of I-5, I-405, R 9 and HWY 522.
The hotel dog potty yard.
Monday morning we found our way to the vet (not easy - Tom-Tom told us our destination was in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere). Six hours later we got her lab results: 1.8. So much for a Monday-Wednesday then home breeding.
Hanging in the hotel.
We killed our time on Tuesday getting to know Tyee and his human mom. As a neutral location, we met at the Seattle Canine Academy where Cedar's breeder, Carie, works. We all got along fabulously. Worn-out Koyuk came home and crashed. She no longer alerted to every traffic and hotel noise.
Koyuk with her best "come hither" eyes.
Hormone drool.
Wednesday's morning lab showed 4.8 so that evening we met at Tyee's beautiful yard for the first try at breeding. While they had no success, they did have a great time and she again came home covered with his drool and exhausted.
 "Hey Handsome"
Home for a nap.
That afternoon we went back to the Seattle Canine Academy for Carie's able assistance.
 Close but...
As the sun was setting, we called it a day.
 And back to the hotel for more waiting.
The next morning we went to the vet for his assistance. It was determined that the breeding needed to be done with artificial insemination. Both dogs performed well and Koyuk then patiently stood on her front legs for 1/2 hour to get the swimmers headed the right direction. She then spent the remainder of the day and night assisting the migration by not moving even to eat.
Saturday morning we checked out of our hotel and headed to the vet for another artificial insemination. Except for an interesting detour through rural NE Seattle to avoid a wreck on I-405, it was smooth driving in sunshine all the way back to Eugene.
Now you know more than you may have wanted about breeding. Tomorrow all about what it is like to have a very excited Trask around his fertile mother. No human sleep continues.

Monday, May 8, 2017

Heavy Lifting Mama

The Icemageddon clean-up continues to be daunting. Now that I have a refurbished chainsaw, Dave decided I needed help with the heavy lifting so he got me a log hauler for mother's day.
The ground finally hit the balance between rock hard summer clay and sinking, sticky muck. With the ground able to support tractor weight, yesterday was time to remove an old Maple tree stump and plant a young tree in it's place. With all of the trees topped from ice damage, we need more trees to shade the house.
The maple tree stump. (I have other plans for the apple tree stump in the background.)
I carefully dug out the 4 huge roots by hand so as to not disturb the sod and then took my chainsaw to them in hopes all we needed to do was push over the stump. Dave mounted the tractor for the first attempts at dislodging the old monster. This tree came down years ago. Surely after cutting the main roots in half he could easily topple the thing.
 Not going to happen. Backhoe time.
 One root down and as it turned out, several to go.
 Screw the sod. About 1/2 hour of serious digging, the stump was finally toppled.
 My turn to try out my new log hauler.
 Joy stick mastered and the very heavy stump was in the air...
 and off to the wood pile.
 The new maple awaits.
The rest of the afternoon was spent filling the hole; tamping down the ground; digging a new hole; planting the tree; adding new soil and replacing spare bits of sod...
 with my canine supervisors.
 One tree down - three more to go.


Wrigleyville Litter

Hi Kay Lee,

Here are some photos of the puppies. They both weigh 1 lb. 7 oz as of this morning. We wanted the litter name to have a Chicago theme and we had several themes picked out. In the end, we decided to go with “The Wrigleyville Litter” theme. Their names are Clark and Addison, which are the streets that Wrigley Field is located on. There are several reasons why we chose this name, the most obvious is that the Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years in November 2016. Additionally, both my husband and son are not only baseball fanatics but Cubs crazy too. Lastly, on the day the puppies were born, while we were at the hospital, our son hit his first home run! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos!
 Clark
 Addison
We made it to Week 1! Clark & Addison have double their weight since birth! They both weighed 2 lbs. 1 oz. this morning. Clark caught to up to Addison this week and yesterday he even surpassed her by a 1/2 oz! I will get 1 week photos later today or tomorrow and post them on FB and to the Google account.

Jane is much better now both physically and mentally. Thank you Karen for suggesting that we push the box back under the table to create a copier den for her. She definitely feels more secure and she seems to have less anxiety. Physically, she is pretty much back to herself and she leaves the box periodically to join us on the couch. 

We are having so much fun with these pups and we are looking forward to the excitement the next 7 weeks will bring!

Lisa