THE HISTORY OF
ALASKAN KLEE KAI
In brief
Long before anyone in Hampshire had heard the words Alaskan Klee Kai, Linda Spurlin was working on something new in her own home in Alaska. Starting in the early 1970s, she and her family spent the best part of two decades shaping a smaller, companion sized version of the Alaskan Husky, working in a touch of Siberian Husky, American Eskimo Dog, and Schipperke to get the size, the temperament, and that unmistakable masked face just right.
She kept the breed close for years, only releasing it to the wider world in 1988, and by 1995 the name had settled into Alaskan Klee Kai, a nod to exactly where it all began.
The United Kennel Club recognised the breed on the first of January 1997, and Klee Kai now come in three sizes, toy, miniature, and standard, so there is a fair bit of range within the breed itself.
Progress has kept coming since then too. The breed joined the American Kennel Club's Foundation Stock Service in October 2020 and moved up into the AKC's Miscellaneous Class in June 2025, both solid steps on a long road toward full recognition.
Where things stand in the UK and Europe:
Here in the UK, the Kennel Club has not yet recognised the Alaskan Klee Kai, so for now it sits outside their registration system entirely.
Europe is looking a more positive story. In October 2025, Suomen Kennelliitto, the Finnish Kennel Club, opened its special register to the breed, using the American breed standard as its reference point, and Sweden followed just a month later, when the Svenska Kennelklubben's breeding committee agreed to recognise the Alaskan Klee Kai at what they call level two, meaning breeding can now happen properly within their own official framework. These are genuine, well documented movements, and it is hard not to hope the UK follows before too long.
We will keep supporting that push for proper UK Kennel Club recognition, in whatever way we can.
For more on the breed's history, standards, and health, the Alaskan Klee Kai Club of America and the Alaskan Klee Kai Association of America are both excellent places to start, and our dogs page has the full introduction to the Klee Kai living here at Louvel Canines.
