Dog Sledding Tours

Dog Sledding Tours

Gjoa Haven is known as the place to dog sled. The people of the Gjoa Haven area have used the dog sled as transportation for many years. Many families still travel by dog sled in this traditional community. Dog sled teams must be specially trained. Sled dogs are trained to respond to common commands:

• hike! for go
• whoa! for stop
• gee for right
• haw left

Many sled dogs are also trained to:

• find their way home in the middle of a blizzard
• alert members of the camp by barking at dangerous animals
• track caribou
• locate seal holes
  

Dog sledding has been a method of transportation in the Arctic for over 2000 years. While snowmobiles have replaced many dogsled teams they are still used for transportation, tourism, and in annual dog races such as Nunavut 200.

World-renowned explorer Knud Rasmussen was the first person to traverse the Northwest Passage by dogsled. This journey was part of the Fifth Thule Expedition and is often called the Great Dog Sled Expedition. He studied and recorded hundreds of legends and songs preserving a wealth of Inuit culture.as he travelled by dog sleds across Arctic Canada, Alaska and Siberia.

Modern day explorer Pam Flowers completed a 2500 mile dog sled track alone with her 8-dog team in 1993. She was attempting to retrace the 1923-24 route of Knud Rasmussen's portion of the Fifth Thule Expedition. Pam Flowers spent the summer of 1993 in Gjoa Haven and completed her journey the following year.

Contact an outfitter in Gjoa Haven to arrange a dog sledding adventure you'll never forget.

Winner of the Dog Sled race in Gjoa Haven

Dog sledding in Gjoa Haven

Sled dog

Knud Rasmussen on his famous dog sled journey the Fifth Thule Expedition

Pam Flowers on her 2500-mile trans-arctic solo dog sled expedition