The COA Litter Badging Program is designed to help improve the long-term sustainability of the Chinook breed, by encouraging breeders to consider health, diversity, and working ability when planning their litters. It is also designed to help new breeders with a list of things to consider that they can discuss with their mentors and/or Health & Genetics Committee members as they go about planning a first breeding. Qualifying planned litters will be awarded up to three badges for meeting Health, Diversity, and Performance benchmarks. Each badge has two levels - Silver and Gold.
Badge Criteria
To qualify for a badge, you'll need to meet all the criteria in the table below for a given category. Each litter can earn up to three badges total, either Silver or Gold (or none) for each category. For example, if a litter met Silver criteria 1-3 for the Health category, but not 4, the litter would not qualify for a Silver Health badge.
| Category | Silver | Gold | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health | 1 | Both parents with normal permanent hip evaluations (PennHIP > 50th percentile or OFA Fair, Good, or Excellent) publicly available AND | Both parents with above average permanent hip evaluations (PennHIP > 60th percentile or OFA Good or Excellent) publicly available AND |
| 2 | Both parents with Normal or Breeder's Option eye evaluations completed at 18 months or older AND | Both parents with Normal or Breeder's Option eye evaluations completed within a year of the planned breeding AND | |
| 3 | At least one parent with a Normal or Breeder's Option eye evaluation completed within a year of the planned breeding AND | At least one parent is MDR1 Clear per genetic screening AND | |
| 4 | Both parents do not have the same Breeder's Option condition | At least one parent is Dwarfism Clear per genetic screening | |
| Diversity | 1 | 5 generation COI of offspring <= that of both parents or 5% (whichever is greater) OR Optimal Selection Health Index (Breeder Tool) of offspring is >= at least one parent AND | 5 generation COI of offspring < 5% OR Optimal Selection Health Index (Breeder Tool) of offspring > current Chinook average OR One parent is a New Founder or F1/2/3 descendant of the Chinook Breed Conservation Program (CBCP) AND |
| 2 | Whole pedigree COI (30 generations) < 40% AND | Whole pedigree COI (30 generations) < 36% AND | |
| 3 | Sire has <= 10 offspring OR sire has no more than 2 prior litters | Sire has < 7 offspring AND sire has no more than 2 prior litters | |
| Performance | 1 | One parent has a COA ACP Certification or UKC first level title OR one parent is a working dog (e.g. Search & Rescue (SAR), Service Dog certified- not including therapy, etc.) | Both parents have a COA ACP Certification or UKC first level title OR one parent has 3 or more ACP Certifications or UKC first level titles OR one parent has two or more ACP Titles or UKC second level titles |
Note: The above table provides a summary of badge criteria. For more details or clarification, please refer to the COA Litter Badging Program.pdf document.
Badging Process
All litters by default begin as unbadged. Breeders nominate planned litters by filling out the the COA Litter Badging Application below and submitting all necessary documentation on the parents demonstrating the litter meets badge criteria.
Within 1 month of receiving the nomination, the Committee will identify appropriate badges and notify the breeder. Online health certifications may be referenced via a link, otherwise scanned copies of certificates from the issuing authority are required. In lieu of COI (coefficient of inbreeding, the breeder may share an Optimal Selection (OS) report or print/scan a copy of the data from OS. The Active Chinook Chair will validate any COA titles and UKC certifications/titles must be included.
Breeders that submit litters for evaluation agree to participate in a brief annual survey about the process and criteria and in an annual survey about summary litter health results.
Breeders with qualifying litters may use the badges on their websites to advertise those specific litters, and the COA Litter page and CQ Whelping Box will include them. As this is a voluntary program, litters that do not conform to the criteria, or those that breeders choose not to submit, will be included as well in the newsletter and on the website.
It isn't just about badges...
Overall, breeders should not limit their breeding considerations to the badge criteria - things like structure, temperament, and type are also critically important but more difficult to quantify.
For more details, see the COA Litter Badging Program.pdf document or contact the Health & Genetics Chair.
