Dogsledding at Deerhurst

One of the fun activities Dale booked for us last week at Deerhurst was dog sledding 

I'm a HUGE dog lover - I love all animals but dogs really have a soft spot with me (Dale is a cat lover). And being with these beautiful huskies reminded me so much of my two beloved family dogs that we use to have. 

Dale booked the dog sledding directly with the Deerhurst resort that we stayed at and we were shuttled over to an area close by where the dog sledding took place

I must admit the smell was rather pungent

We washed our jackets, mitts and clothes right away....and the car even smelt like smelly dogs :S 

So Dale sprayed down the car with cologne LOL

You have the option of driving your own sled or having a guide drive your sled.

Dale and I decided to drive our own dog sleds and up front, there is a guide who is own their own sled to lead us.

Each of us had four dogs per sled*

I was worried that the dogs would be tired and asked why they didn't put more dogs on each sled. The guide told me we could certainly put more dogs on each sled but it gets rather dangerous because they pick up much more speed and it's harder to control the dogs since it's common that the dogs get into fights with one another (or give nasty growls to one another) through dominance issues. We were also told to give the sled a bit of a push or help the dogs run uphill a bit if you see the dogs are labouring 

It does get really fast on the sled at times!

According to the guide I believe my dog sledding experience will go down in history LOL

We were warned that falling off the sled is not uncommon....but I was thrown off my sled three times!! The funny part is that just before I was thrown off the second time, our group stopped and the guide warned us that there's a rock in the ground right up ahead which we should watch out for. So the guide goes over it fine, Dale goes over the rock fine, and me?! I get thrown off the sled again LOL

Then the third time I flew off, it was during the "easy part" of the trail. The guide told us that last stretch of trail is easy sailing - but you can bet I flew off my sled face first into the snow during that stretch :P  The guide saw me take my last fall and he was like "OMG! That was a crazy fall! Are you okay?!" 

*Remember how I mentioned we all get four dogs per sled? Another reason my story will go down in history is because I lost one of my dogs 1/3 into the run!! :S  

The problem with these dogs is that they do not have a stop, left or right command

So at one point of the trail, our guide and Dale went one way and for some reason my dogs went another way. I managed to stop them with the brakes and the guide came over the help me. At that point, one of my dogs was very vigilant in going the other way and he slipped off his collar and bolted home LOL 

This was really fun & I highly recommend it as a winter activity

Dale and I would do this again but only if the dogs knew a left and right command (some dog sledding companies have dogs that are taught those commands)

Are you a dog or cat lover? 

Have you (or would you) go dog sledding?