The Adventure Starts
Hello My Name Is Renegade, You might Know Me As Renny
Renny is the first Siberian that came to live with us before there was even the idea of Whirlwind Acres. Mr. Renegade taught us about the silly and mischievous nature of the Siberian husky. Renny Also Showed us the joy of dog shows. Unfortunately at a year old Mr. Renegade failed his eye exam, that's right Renny is 25% blind in both eyes. This news ended Renny's show career, with out a job to do Renny started to act out. Dawn had a sit down with one of her mentors, She was told Renny wasn't happy now as he no longer had a job and was looking for a new one. we had to find him another job in our home or he would need to be place in a different home. Dawn would never give Renny up so she started thinking of what she could do with him to make him happy again. while watching Iron will with Renny and Nova one night dawn came up with the idea to try dog sledding.
What am I Doing?
Lets try dog sledding, with no snow and no mentor to give instruction on what to do. what could possibly go wrong.
When Dawn hooked up Renny for the first time the was no cameras allowed. so the events of that day never happened. Renny never screamed and freaked out that he was hooked up to a small log, and Dawn never bribed him to move with hotdogs.
fast forward 4 months and Renny is now able to go forward on is own, no hotdogs required, and runs in front of the quad. now he's joined by Nova for her first run, pictured here. she took to pulling so effortlessly taking clues from Renny on what they where supposed to be doing. in a few short months nova was running solo lead when Ashur was added to the team.
The Adventure continues
Time seems to fly by so fast. Dawn run her first 5 dog team in October of 2018. adding Destiny to the team changed not only how fast the dogs run but also changed how much control Dawn had over her team when they started to miss behave. Dawn learned that she needed to get back to basics and teach the lead dogs to follow commands even when they are far out in front.
More then what meets the eye
All the Siberians at Whirlwind Acres have another job people rarely see. All the dogs are also show dogs. we travel with our fury family all over Canada and down into the US to show the dogs to at lest their champion title. Showing is Dawns other passion.
New horizons and New beginnings
The day came when we had out grown our long time home. At 3 acres it was just to small and Dawn was forced to run the dogs along a busy gravel road to get to a safe spot to run the dogs. We made the difficult decision to uproot our lives and start anew somewhere else. This decision, with a little help from Shantel (the oldest of the Ouimet Children) lead us to our new home in Berwyn. Here the dogs have there own heated kennel building with outdoor access and play yards.
Upon arriving we went to check out the Dog kennel and get everything ready for the dogs before we even knew what the house looked like. Shantel had told us about the house as she and Eryn (the youngest of the Ouimet children) went to tour the property for us. but only sent photos of the kennel for us to see.
The Start of Whirlwind Acres
After living in Berwyn for almost a year and being asked about sled rides every time we would be buying dog supplies. We decided to offer the team for family day weekend in 2021. sadly Covid ended those ideas quickly when the events where canceled, but people still asked about the sled rides. We decided to continue with our plans on our property with private booking slots. we let Shantel take the booking for that weekend. She called the weekend before family day and informed us we where fully booked and she actually booked the next 3 weekend as well. I guess we now have a tour company.
Our First full season closes
Winter 2021/2022
What a wonderful winter season we had. Meeting new friends and catching up with old friends. Running two dog sleds for this season was its own learning process, one we mastered. this season also saw us take the dog out to Dixonville for a community event, was an amazing experience.
Change is in the Air
THE PEACE RIVER AG SOCIETY
We Spent 2 seasons (2022/2023 and 2023/2024) out at the Ag Society. Here we created and maintained our own trails, this was such a great and rewarding experiance. Our two seasons at the Ag Society saw the rise of community events and the introduction of our Canadian Eskimo Dogs.
But all good things must come to an end. We made the difficult decision to end our operations with the Ag Society to expand in a new location!
Our New Home!
July 2024 we made the decision to move our entire pack, 43 dogs! to a new home 11km from our previous home base location. Why you ask? that seems like a lot a work to just move 11kms.
Well from our new home base location, all our runs are departing. we now have more then 60X the land to run on then at the Ag Society. Yes you read that right 60X!
we can even offer long cart rides now! We even have plans for the ultimate sledding experiance, an over night trip!
We cant wait to see you all again for the 2024/2025 season!