The best dog sledding experience in Ontario

I’ve been on a great streak of trying new winter activities the past couple of years and this year I got to try the best dog sledding experience in Ontario. It was actually my mother’s idea as she decided to take me for my birthday this year.

After hearing about it from a couple of friends and looking more into it herself she found the perfect company to go with: Winterdance Dogsled Tours.

I know what you’re thinking, dog sledding is often thought to be really bad for the dogs. It’s honestly what I thought as well. My mom is a huge animal activist and so you better believe she looked into this as much as she could before booking.

I’ll go into more detail in a minute but just browse through the reviews on TripAdvisor and you’ll quickly realize how amazingly they treat the dogs. Review after review goes into details about the care they take and how much they love the dogs that work for them.

Getting there

The one downside about Winterdance dog sled tours is the distance from Toronto. It took us roughly 3 hours from Toronto and we left very early on a Saturday morning. Although it wasn’t a tough drive, just a really long one.

About 15 minutes outside of the facility you will absolutely lose reception. It’s like a dead zone where they are so make sure if you’re going to drive to print off or at least save the instructions before you arrive. There will be signs but if you’re really bad with instructions or directions, you can’t be too careful.

The other thing to note is that you’ll be heading up North. For us the drive was really easy because we’re near the end of the season so the snow has pretty much melted off the ground (except for where the facility is which I couldn’t believe).

All that to be said, if you’re heading up in the middle of the winter I can only imagine how rough some of those roads can be. Make sure you have winter tires!

About the facility

Winterdance dog sled tours is a family owned and operated company. They’ve been around for about 20 years and have been proving 5* service ever since.

They have a 5000 sq ft building a little ways from where they have their tours where they house the dogs in the summer and the winter. The one thing my mom and I loved about this company is that they take such good care of their dogs.

All of the huskies they own are born and raised on the property. The best part is, when a dog retires from sledding they are still kept on the property and brought to the ‘retirement suites’ where they can live out the rest of their lives.

Winterdance has about 150 dogs in total helping them with their tours. The guide we had, Ryan, knew the names of every single one. That’s how much they love and care about the dogs.

The experience

Like most tours, you are brought though the rules and education from the very beginning. You’re told a little bit about the history of the company and about dog sledding in general and then your guide will bring you through details of the actual sled.

Here’s one thing I learned: there is a hell of a lot more that goes into dog sledding than I knew. Honestly, I left the orientation feeling nervous that I was going to mess up!

After orientation you’re brought outside to find your sled and wait for your team to join you. As the dogs come out, they are assessed and brought to the right teams. I couldn’t believe how detailed the staff was about what dog went where. They make sure not to overwork the dogs so if one was a lead that day already they won’t be in the afternoon. They also make sure that the teams are going to get along once they start building them.

As the dogs come out and join your team it’s highly encouraged that you get to know them and spend some time with them. I mean, it’s not hard! Once you’ve got your team and spent some time getting to know them, you’re ready to go!

The actual dog sledding experience was so much harder than I thought it was going to be, for the driver. You have to stand on the back and make sure to always have your foot on the break, jump off and run up the hills to help the dogs and to always keep watch to make sure everything is okay. As the passenger, you basically just have to sit there and take beautiful photos!

For being pulled by dogs I was actually surprised with how fast we went. You have to be really careful when going downhill though that the sled doesn’t go faster than the dogs. That’s when you have to be really careful because it can get dangerous for them and they are the most important thing!

If you’re going to be doing the dog sledding experience in Ontario with Winterdance, I would highly recommend doing the half day tour. A full day would have been too long and one hour just doesn’t feel like it would have been enough.

All in all it was an incredible experience and one I’ll remember forever!