Hello everyone! My name is Sheila Sweet. I was excited to be elected as AKKAOA Vice President in 2023. I am looking forward to more positive changes for the club in the coming years. I am a small home breeder / exhibitor of Alaskan Klee Kai (AKK) living in rural Haworth, Oklahoma. I fell in love with the breed after seeing them on a National Geographic documentary in 2006. I had always loved the herding breeds and was looking for a play mate for my recently acquired MARS Rescue Australian Shepherd puppy. Little did I know how these amazing little huskies would impact my life. Unlike any breed of dog I had ever encountered, Foxxy was my first Alaskan Klee Kai. She made sounds that reminded me of some prehistoric creature, climbed like a monkey and played like a cat. Sort of like multiple creatures all rolled up into one. From that point forward, there has been no other breed to compare. I was bitten by the show bug after getting my first AKK in 2006. My beautiful Brandy from Huggable Huskies, Bette Cook, was #1 Top Ten conformation in 2010 and then made it to #9 Top Ten in 2012 with limited showing engagements. Brandy passed away in 2023. My gorgeous Dusty, bred here at Fusion of XXcellence Alaskan Klee Kai, achieved #5 Top Ten status in conformation as well. I have not been able to travel much over past several year, but am hoping to get back out there more in the coming years. I have been active with the Breed Clubs since 2007 when I started serving as the Treasurer for the dissolved United Alaskan Klee Kai Association. While serving on the UAKKA BOD, I guided the Alaskan Klee Kai recognition for CHIC by advising the BOD of the procedures and making the initial contacts with OFA to get the ball rolling for Alaskan Klee Kai recognition and inclusion in the CHIC database. I became the Chair for the AKKAOA Health Committee in 2013. I was encouraged by a long time Standard Poodle breeder to push to have the AKK join the UC Davis Canine Genetic Diversity study in 2015. I coordinated with breeders and Dr. Pedersen to process the DNA for at least over 400 Alaskan Klee Kai for the study. Here is a link to the study: https://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/dog/GeneticDiversityinAlaskanKleeKai.php It has always been my desire to make a positive contribution to the future of this wonderful breed by working to show and breed dogs which possess good health, conformation, and temperament and that are even better than their sire and dam. I am an advocate of health testing and Canine Genetic Diversity testing to prevent health concerns in future generations of Alaskan Klee Kai. I ensure my breeding potential dogs are OFA certified and passing for Patella Luxation, Cardiac, and Thyroid as well as eye testing prior to their Breeding Quality Examination. Retesting is also done to ensure health issues do not develop as the dogs mature. It has been my hope to obtain excellent examples of the breed from various different breeders to meld their positive qualities to produce a Fusion of XXcellence for the future of my breeding program. It is my pleasure to continue working with the awesome group of people comprising the AKKAOA Health Committee. They have worked together to bring us the Health Case Study report, the 2016 AKKAOA Breed Health Survey with on-line submission to make the process easier and are currently working to develop a perpetual Health Survey for AKK on the OFA web site. All in hopes of identifying trending health issues in the breed which may in turn lead to future research.