Breed is ‘intelligent but not always obedient’

When Sharon Hari first saw an Alaskan Klee Kai Miniature Husky at the America’s Family Pet Expo in 2004, she reacted the way most people do. Wow! She had not even known they existed.

“The dogs have only been out of Alaska for 17 years,” Hari said, and Klee Kais — from the native dialect, meaning “small dog” — as a breed have only been around since the mid 1970s. Now, just a few years later, the 57-year-old Huntington Beach grandmother breeds them herself.

This weekend Hari returned to the Pet Expo held on the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa with Pearl, the daughter of her first dog, Farro. Sitting outside at the group’s booth a handful of breeders answered questions mostly from excited children and families looking for a good indoors puppy.

“They’re very intelligent, but not always obedient,” Hari told an interested couple. “I always like the look of huskies,” Hari said, and other miniature breeds all seemed “too fragile.”

Pearl, only 18-months-old, backed away from a mounting number of children eager to lay their tiny hands on her into Hari’s lap, skittish after so much attention at one time.

“They’re so cute,” said 6-year-old Nolan Hull of Fountain Valley.

Klee Kai’s all have a mask of dark fur around their eyes, “just like Zorro,” Hari said.

They are separated into three varieties by size. Toy Klee Kais are those 13 inches and smaller, Miniatures measure up to 15 inches, and standards go up to 17 inches. Pearl, even with two larger parents, just barely made it into the miniature category at 13 and ¼.

Their temperament is all over the map, a number of the breeders said Sunday. “When we get home they’re just running around … by nighttime they’re sitting on the couch, watching TV with me,” owner Julie Baker said.