ATtiny44 not responding to AVRISP mkII programmer
The AVRISP mkII can program the tiny44 in the latest version of AVR Studio (4.18 SP3 or 5 beta).  Make sure your version is either up-to-date or check the help files/release notes that came with it to verify.  Also allow AVR Studio to update the firmware in your AVRISP mkII if it needs to.

Verify the following conditions:


Programmer is connected to PCB (GND, RESET, MOSI, MISO, and SCK)
Target is powered. 


Not sure how much power the AVRISP MKII can provide, but don't rely on it if your board takes more than 50 mA.
You do not need to connect the programmer's VCC line to the chip power if you provide it externally.

MOSI, MISO, SCK have pullups to GND/VCC no stronger than 820 Ω.
RESET pullup should be no stronger than 4.7 kΩ and have a decoupling capacitor less than 10 µF.


Follow the troubleshooting guide in the AVRISP mkII user guide [PDF] if you experience problems as a first step: