Dog Sledding Without Snow in Longyearbyen, Svalbard (Norway)

Like all dog lovers, we miss our dogs. We don’t feel like we have enough space for a dog in our downsized townhouse, but that doesn’t stop us from greeting every dog we see. Therefore, what could be better than a dog sledding wagon pulled by eleven Alaskan Huskies and Greenland sled dogs in Longyearbyen on Svalbard? We scheduled this adventure with Green Dog on a cool (or cold, according to my wife!) August morning. Longyearbyen is latitude 78 degrees north – about as far north as you can go without an airplane or submarine (except for the next stop on our journey, Ny-Ålesund, which is about 79 degrees north).

Well – seeing the puppies would be better.

So we were picked up, last of our group, in front of the Radisson in Longyearbyen. Out of a truck pulling the dogs in their kennels jumps a very petite young lady who introduces herself as Josephine. Very shortly we would soon enough realize not to underestimate her.

The Setup

Next, we drove a bit outside of the town, and Josephine, after giving us instructions including, at least for now, to stay in the wheeled wagon, began attaching the dogs…usually one in each hand.

The wagon we were to be pulled in was a simple four wheeled contraption with seats for eight in the back and a bench for the driver. That’s nine humans pulled by a team of 11 (usually 12, but one was pregnant) dogs.

We were asked to sit in on the benches while the dogs got hooked up, as they would be excited and ready to run and might take off without weight in the wagon. They were indeed loud and boisterous.

Alas, just after Josephine gave the word to the dogs to begin our journey, the wagon lurched to the side. A wheel had broken off.

This temporary set back proved an opportune time to say a brief hello to the dogs. They were excited to get going, but had to be all put back in their boxes so we could move to a working wagon. The same hook up exercise happened and then we were back in action. The dog sledding had begun!

Dog Sledding

We headed out along the coastline north of Longyearbyen in the direction of the airport, circling just north of the airport. There were three water stops for the dogs; even though it was cold for us, they were working up a sweat. Josephine did the first watering herself, then we were able to assist in the watering for the last two stops and meet the dogs.

The scenery going along the water, even without snow, was pretty spectacular. We passed glaciers on one side and the Global Seed Vault on the other. We looped around and headed back to our starting point.

The PackUp (pun intended)

Back at the truck and its attached rolling set of dog kennels, now that we had met the dogs we were able to help load them back in their pens. Both Audrey and I had always thought that the sled dogs would not be friendly. But Josephine said one of the first trainings that the dogs had as puppies was to be used to people (and to the cold).

The Kennel and the Puppies

We drove back toward and past Longyearbyen, past the famous polar bear sign. For those unaware, visitors and locals are not supposed to venture outside the polar bear sign without someone armed with a rifle or pistol – for the purposes of scaring the bears away if they got near. Josephine was so armed and, having been in the army, so trained. By all accounts, the bears were in the far north part of the archipelago so we did not see hide nor hair of one.

We passed the place where locals keep their dogs, and passed another dog kennel. A right off the main road, a drive up the hills and we came to the home of Green Dog.

The founder and owner of Green Dog had been to Greenland as part of the Arctic patrol there. He had brought Greenland dogs with him to Svalbard when founding Green Dog. The compound was home to the family and as such had a certain playfulness to it for the children’s growing up there.

Josephine had told us that she and the other folks at Green Dog (I’d like to call them “DogMasters” cause that sounds cool) each had two teams of twelve dogs.

Do the math, there were a lot of dogs!

The picture above is looking toward the entrance; the one below is toward the opposite direction

The dogs were named according to themes, apparently voted on by the DogMasters. There was Khalessi, Clark, and the apparently infamous Bilbo. Bilbo had been in commercials and had a reputation as an excellent polar bear alert/watch dog.

Clark, as we exited our vehicle and started to walk amongst the dogs, excitedly wrapped his chain around my legs and took me to the ground – quicker than any rugby tackle i have experienced. I think he might have licked me.

Luckily, there were no photos.

Then we got to see the puppies.

They had opened their eyes only a couple of days earlier and we were the second group to get to welcome them to the world. Josephine told us that getting the puppies used to people and used to the cold outdoors starts very early in their lives.

We finished the visit with hot drinks and warm waffles in a room next to where the puppies were kept. We then were driven back to our hotel. Josephine told us she was using this job to get experience to combine with her time in the Army to get into veterinarian school – which is more competitive in Scandinavia than medical school. We wish her well on her incredible journey.

One would assume we had our fill of dogs! But other folks on the tour told us about a coffee shop that let local huskies roam and visit the patrons. So we ended our excellent dog experience with a visit to the Huskie Cafe in Longyearbyen.