About Us

How we fell in love with Chinooks

The people behind Desert Sol Chinooks are Jon and Kristy Jolly. Kristy, a life-long lover of all things furry, brought up the notion of wanting a dog (to add to our two cats, one ferret, and Koi pond). Jon had always wanted another dog, but had waited to make sure we had the time and resources necessary to give a dog a great life. Jon grew up with German Shepherds and Kristy had a Collie during her childhood. It would be easy to choose a type of dog we had before, but we wanted make sure the dog fit our lifestyle.

Kristy was torn, having worked in rescue groups for both cats and dogs. She really wanted to adopt a puppy from a rescue group, but we were both a little hesitant since we had particular interests regarding temperament, energy level, and size- all of which are difficult to determine from a puppy of mixed breeds. We decided that a survey of pretty much ALL dog breeds (via the Internet) was necessary to make sure we were getting a dog that suited our needs. After countless breeds that always seemed to have something that didn't quite fit our lifestyle, we came across the Chinook dog breed and immediately recognized that this was the dog for us!

We named our first Chinook puppy Kyra which roughly means “of the sun” (fitting for a couple living in the Phoenix, AZ area which is quite sunny and hot (an understatement). Kyra is now our Chinook ambassador and, along with the help of her puppies, has helped us bring our love of the breed to the southwest!

chinook dog



The perfect dog

The Chinook dog is loving and good with children (with proper socialization), their energy level is moderate often matching that of their people (ranging from lazy to active depending on what is needed for the situation), they don't have as automatic of a prey drive as some breeds, and they are moderately sized (about 50 to 90) pounds. Our initial experience of talking to several Chinook dog breeders, meeting Dave and Karen Schiller of Mountain Thunder Chinooks, and getting our puppy was incredibly fun! Years later, we are still amazed at how this wonderful dog breed has such a close knit ‘family.’

chinook dog
chinook dog



Chinook Community

Jon and Kristy are active members of the Chinook community. Jon is the current editor of the Chinook Quarterly, the official newsletter of the Chinook Owners Association (COA) and webmaster for the COA website. Kristy is the current Membership Chair for the COA and both Jon & Kristy sit on the COA Board. Kristy also is the Social Media Coordinator for the COA Facebook page and contributes in various Chinook discussion groups. Not only do we have a wonderful dog as part of our family, but being part of this bigger Chinook community has been a fun hobby that both Jon and Kristy get to do together.

chinook dog





Why 'Desert Sol'?

The Name

Desert:

When coming up with our kennel name we wanted it to be immediately clear in which area of the country we were located.



Sol:

Means 'sun' in Spanish (very fitting for our region) and also is a homophone as it's pronounced the same as ‘soul’ which is something all Chinooks have a lot of!

The Logo

Dog Silhouette:

The dog silhouette in the picture is Kyra, our first Chinook, which was clipped from a picture taken during the sunrise near the dunes of southern Arizona.



Sun ('Sol'):

The sun represents (literally) the blazing, unrelenting heat of Arizona and (metaphorically) the heart and soul of the breed. Fun fact: the design of the sun is based off of one of Jon's tattoos.

chinook dog