Dog Sledding in Canmore with Howling Dog Tours

by
January 9th, 2010

My co-workers and I earned a team incentive fund to celebrate a sales success last year. With 11 of us, it was important to find an activity that appealled to everyone. Our team is from Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Nanaimo and Vancouver.

We need a challenging task and after a lot of research, we landed on a dogsledding event in Canmore! Howling Dog Tours took us for a 2 hour, early evening tour through a national park.

Each sled team consisted of a guide, 6 to 7 dogs and 2 of us. These dogs were so excited when they were being geared up—you couldn't have a conversation for all the howling and barking. Once we got going they were focussed, listening to the odd command; "up tight", "ha" (left) and "gee" (right). We learned that the term "mush" is all Hollywood. The guides tell you the origin of this infamous but unused phrase.

I highly recommend this for any one—just bundle up. Later that night we wnt to a great little pub called The Grizzly Paw Brewery in Canmore, with huge portions and great food!

Gallery (4 images)

Map

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Howling Dog Tours
Canmore
Unit 105, 712 Bow Valley Trail
Grizzly Paw Pub
622 8 Street

Comments

Anonymous - 01/12/2010 - 10:47

I did the 2 hr "Unleash the Musher" tour in December, and it was a blast. The staff are friendly and informative, the dogs are adorably loving and the snacks are delcious. What a wonderful family activity!

Anonymous - 01/12/2010 - 10:49

5-star operation that accomodates every age and adventure level!

Liza - 01/12/2010 - 10:53

I went on a dogsledding trip with Howling Dog Tours for my anniversary. We opted for a later tour, which was totally romantic as the sun went down and the moon came up. We got some amazing photos and were glad to be able to interact with the dogs. We were able to harness them, feed them and play with them. My husband enjoyed guiding the sled, and I enjoyed sitting back and relaxing in the sled. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we plan to book another trip for next year!

Carol - 02/01/2010 - 20:05

Dog sledding truely is an all ages adventure and my guide at Howling Dog made sure to include my kids as well as me and my wife!
We went on a 2 hour tour in early January and my kids haven't stopped talking about the dogs and how they helped guided the sled with our guide, Gary.
This is definitely an activity we have and will continue to recommend to our friends and family and will come again the next time we're in the Rockies!
Everyone at Howling Dog made this an unforgettable day!

Anonymous - 07/20/2010 - 08:49

I was sort of suprised that most of the guides arn't Canadians. I was expecting a great Canadian experience. I also found that the trail was really a 4km one way then 4km backtrack, so not 10km as said at the beginning and you really only see 4km of wilderness...

Anonymous - 07/22/2010 - 17:15

I am so surprised to read that some people actually enjoyed their outing with this company.
I went dog sledding this past winter of 2010 for their so called “2 hr. tour”...you could have easily covered this trail in a half hour! They waste your time and money...that is without question but the most disturbing is their dogs. I cannot comprehend how some people think that it’s enjoyable to have these tiny skeletons pulling them on a sled. Yes indeed, some of the dogs were friendly but that does not excuse their horrific appearance and smell, a lot of the dogs literally had fur missing all over their bodies and the worst part...the guides couldn’t even tell me why! It is clear that the employees really have no proper training in how to look after the dogs belonging to this company, my guide even admitted that she really wasn’t taught that much about looking after the dogs which I understand require twice the care than a regular house pet! Many of the workers told me that it’s normal that these dogs are so skinny in fact, they prefer it! I did some research and found that most Iditarod champion’s sled dogs are not even close to being that skinny and have been told that dog sledders prefer fit dogs however, not to the point that you can count each rib on the animal!
I have looked over some other guest complaints about this company and found their experience to be similar to mine so clearly there is a serious problem. Shame on anyone who promotes this type of animal treatment and most of all shame on this company for charging people to come touring only to see these poor skinny creatures struggle to make it to the end of the tour! And do you know what they gave the dogs after the run? Water...with no food of any kind except a small treat! I read that sled dogs burn up to 4000 calories a day so I guess the dogs get fed once a day the guides say! Majority of the dogs in the team didn’t even touch their water and then they were loaded into tiny boxes. I just felt awful for these dogs, they all looked so miserable. It’s obvious that all the money they collect is not going to their dogs! I even went as far as approaching one of the owners to express my concern, instead of him trying to help me and hear me out he yelled at me and told me to leave his establishment! Typical of a person trying to hide something no doubt! I hope that someone somewhere decides to step in and help these dogs however, I fear that most people just see them as an entertainment value and wouldn’t see a problem, how sad.