Alaskan Klee Kai

Vocal and alert; close to family, wary of strangers.
An Alaskan Klee Kai
Photo: wikipedia user Gnuyen
Adult weight
2.7–11 kg
6–25 lb
Lifespan
13–14 yrs
Class · Companion
also Sport

What it's like

The Klee Kai is alert and energetic, closely bonded to its household but reserved and often wary with strangers, which makes it a ready watchdog rather than a dog that greets everyone. It is known as a vocal breed that tends to howl, yip and make chattering sounds, and many keep an urge to chase small animals.

Day to day
Activity
Needs lots of exercise
Intelligence
Needs daily brain work
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
Affectionate on its own terms
Loyalty
Sticks close to its people
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Needs a calm, predictable home
Voice
Very vocal
Prey drive
Likely to chase small pets
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
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Size and growth

An Alaskan Klee Kai is a small dog, about the weight of a grown Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

In appearance it is a scaled-down husky, with erect triangular ears, a wedge-shaped head and a well-furred tail that usually curls over the back. The double coat may be standard or full length and is black and white, grey and white, or red and white; all-white dogs occur but are not accepted for showing. Toy, miniature and standard varieties are recognised, divided by height.

Varieties

UKC divides this breed by height at the withers. Pick the variety your dog is for a band that fits.
Variety
Weight
Height
Toy
30.5–33 cm (registry figure)6
Miniature
33–38.1 cm (registry figure)7
Standard
38.1–43.2 cm (registry figure)8

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 3 months, a male Alaskan Klee Kai puppy is already as heavy as a grown Chihuahua. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
10 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight10
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
0510152m4m6m9m12m18m
0510152m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
0.8–3.4 kg 1.8–7.5 lb
0.9–3.7 kg 2.0–8.2 lb
3 months
1.1–4.5 kg 2.4–9.9 lb
1.1–4.7 kg 2.4–10.4 lb
4 months
1.5–6.1 kg 3.3–13.4 lb
1.5–6.2 kg 3.3–13.7 lb
5 months
1.8–7.4 kg 4.0–16.3 lb
1.8–7.3 kg 4.0–16.1 lb
6 months
2.0–8.4 kg 4.4–18.5 lb
2.0–8.2 kg 4.4–18.1 lb
7 months
2.2–9.1 kg 4.9–20.1 lb
2.1–8.9 kg 4.6–19.6 lb
8 months
2.3–9.6 kg 5.1–21.2 lb
2.2–9.4 kg 4.9–20.7 lb
9 months
2.4–10.0 kg 5.3–22.0 lb
2.3–9.8 kg 5.1–21.6 lb
10 months
2.5–10.3 kg 5.5–22.7 lb
2.4–10.1 kg 5.3–22.3 lb
11 months
2.5–10.5 kg 5.5–23.1 lb
2.5–10.3 kg 5.5–22.7 lb
12 months
2.5–10.7 kg 5.5–23.6 lb
2.5–10.5 kg 5.5–23.1 lb
15 months
2.6–11.0 kg 5.7–24.3 lb
2.6–10.9 kg 5.7–24.0 lb
18 months
2.7–11 kg 6–25 lb
2.7–11.2 kg 6.0–24.7 lb

Lifespan

No vet study has measured how long Alaskan Klee Kais live yet. The 13–14 years shown is a reference range, not a measured one.

Where it comes from

Linda Spurlin and her family developed the Alaskan Klee Kai in Alaska, breeding the Alaskan Husky, a northern spitz, down to companion size from the early 1970s and letting others have dogs from 1988. Named Klee Kai at first, it gained the prefix Alaskan in 1995 and UKC recognition in 1997; its standard singles out the contrasting facial mask, with a bar down the nose and goggles around the eyes12.

The Alaskan Klee Kai is a companion breed, developed in Alaska by Linda Spurlin from the nineteen-seventies to give the look of a northern sled dog in a smaller frame. Although Spurlin's dogs descended mainly from Alaskan Huskies, the Schipperke and the American Eskimo Dog are widely reported to have been added to bring size down. The name is usually said to come from an Inuit term meaning small dog. The breed has since joined the American Kennel Club's Foundation Stock Service.

Breed standard

One registry divides it into three varieties by height, each with its own weight range.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Alaskan Klee Kai figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a small breed is most likely at the early end.

Compare with related

Siberian Husky
Spitz & primitive · Medium
Norwegian Lundehund
Spitz & primitive · Small
Japanese Spitz
Spitz & primitive · Small
Shiba Inu
Spitz & primitive · Small
Or compare the Alaskan Klee Kai with any breed you choose
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Sources

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Parts of this page were written by AI ·