Salisbury man launches dog sledding business with interesting team

SALISBURY, N.B. – New Brunswicker Doug Stoakley launched a dog sledding company just outside of Moncton this winter.

But he’s offering sled tours with an unconventional team.

“Everyone considers when they talk about sled dogs that it is always the husky or the husky mixes somewhere along there.  But I have eight black labs. They are not purebred but they are pure enough for me, pure dog,” he said.

His journey into mushing all started with an energetic lab, named Cole “the destroyer”.

“I took in a rescue dog – Cole – he is one of my leaders and he tore apart three lazy boy chairs, a love seat and a couch. Just shredded it all in one day. So I come home and see all that and am like, ‘Wow, I really got to do something.'”

Stoakley decided to try out mushing with not even a sniff of husky DNA in his pack of labs.

It took hours of training, but eventually Stoakley trained his labs to pull like sled dogs, which soon turned into a business.

“This will be the first year that I offer dog sled rides and I do programs for 4H clubs, schools and church clubs,” he said.

His business is off to a slow start thanks to a lack of snow.

But not only does Stoakley hold private tours, he also holds seminars for other dog owners to teach them how to train their dogs.

Dog owners like Allyson Mitten.

“I always thought it was nothing I could be involved in until I saw the labs and then I thought ‘We could do this’ and here we are,” she said.

Stoakley said there’s nothing like it.