The name "Skookum" comes from Pacific Northwest/Canadian Chinook Jargon used until about the1930's. It has a variety of positive connotations such as "best", "powerful", "first rate", "tough", "trustworthy", "reliable".

If she wasn't the only puppy in the litter, we probably would never have kept her with those patched ears because they disqualify her from the conformation show ring. But kept her we did, with no regrets. Skookum has been a dog trainer's dream, complete with nice conformation, compact size of only 19 inches, intelligence, drive, and willingness to please. Our little cutie was also a little firebrand. She was a delight to run in the agility ring, as she did everything with great gusto and enthusiasm. She was at various times referred to as "The Flying Nun" and "The Rocket".

Skookum competed at the Excellent (Masters) level in agility, Utility level in obedience, and TD level in Tracking. She was one of the first VCD2 dalmatians ever, a title derived from being active in all three major performance sports sponsored by AKC. She also achieved a number of High in Trials at several specialty shows, including the Canadian National. Unfortunately, life got in our way and we were unable to finish showing her to the level we wanted to go. She was bred once, to Johnny, and produced a litter of puppies in 2010, of which we kept one. Of the six puppies, two were patched.