Change can be scary. But throwing yourself into the unknown is second nature if you are a sled dog - or, if you are Joe and Mark Swiffen, a couple who got together 18 years after being childhood sweethearts and moved to North Wales to start something new.
Residing in South Alwen Forest near Cerrigydrudion, is Mynydd Sleddog Adventures, Wales’ first and only outdoor activity provider, offering husky rides and sled dog experiences with a team of 20 racing sled dogs. They opened in 2020, just as the pandemic hit, but it didn’t stop them from making the business a success.
Now they are working to help offenders, and support people with their mental health by helping them make a change and try something new. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter
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Joe and Mark moved from the Wirral in 2019, wanting to experience more life outdoors. Conwy was the perfect match for Joe, who grew up dreaming of visiting North America, Canada and Scandinavia. With a love for mountains, forest, snow and ice, she also grew up wanting a dog that looked like a wolf.
But her parents had other plans, so instead when she was younger they owned gun dogs, guinea pigs and rabbits. After a hefty amount of research, Joe got her first Siberian Husky; Taskan, in 2001. And it wasn’t long before she found out that no amount of walking was enough, so she contacted the then secretary for the Siberian Husky Club of Great Britain. She worked Taskan in harness, to help him burn off steam, and she was hooked.
Joe was intent on competing with him, and ended up taking in several more dogs. This led her to a brand new chapter of travel, as she lived in the back of a van for six weeks in the French Alps at -25 degrees, with 12 racing Siberian Huskies.
Her training for the World Sleddog Association (WSA) World Sprint Race Championships on Snow, which took place in Slovakia that year, took place here in Wales. Joe has also led a team of twelve dogs on Norwegian mountain trails and handled working Siberian Huskies in the Norsk Siberian Husky Klubb specialised show - but having seen it all, she believes that Wales holds a special opportunity to expand the sport.
When her and Mark got together in 2012, 18 years after being teenage sweethearts everything changed again. Mark had two dogs of his own, who were both German Shepherds, and it wasn’t long before he was also a working dog convert. He also started to train and race one of his own four-legged-friends, and loved having a dog to race in harness. But one of the things he found was that he also enjoyed being able to let it off lead, which inspired the couple to start working with Scandinavian hounds, which, although they are a sled dog lead, are also very affectionate and make perfect pets.
Now they work with a whole team of dogs on their smallholding in Wales. They currently have Siberian Huskies, Scandinavian Hounds, Alaskan Huskies and a German Short Haired Pointer, all at the centre, which Joe remarked; “keeps them very busy.”
She added: “They can be bouncy, and they can misbehave sometimes. But, I don't think you get that kind of spirit from dogs that don't want to work.
“People who come to see us understand that these are working dogs and they absolutely love what they do. And people are just fascinated by them.”
Being the first and only outdoor activity provider offering husky rides and sled dog experiences in the country, Joe believes that Wales could offer a very bright future for the sport. She said: “I think that there is this huge opportunity in Wales to grow it. I would hope there’d be a moment where we are running at capacity. That would be the dream. And there are so many other counties where it could be developed into.
“We’re in Conwy, we've got Denbighshire on the border Flintshire’s, next door, Wrexham's not far and then Cheshire - there’s so many places I just really think that we have a fantastic opportunity and Wales to have a real great centre for sled dog sports and activities.”
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People can book all sorts of experiences with the business, from a sunrise sled dog ride to a husky ride. But they are also having a wider impact on the community, and offering people a range of tools to change their mindsets. Support award-winning journalism with WalesOnline’s Premium app on Apple or Android
Their work has now also been benefitting people ranging in age from 18 to 58 on an NHS canine therapy programme who have committed significant offences for which they have been incarcerated in a separate unit, rather than regular prisons. A programme was established in collaboration with Joe, where the goal is to alter people's perspective on life while working with a dog.
Joe said: “I wanted to do something with the dogs that would engage people and would help them maybe see a different perspective on life. So that's kind of where I had the original idea for a business. So it started as an adventure tourism business. But then it's kind of developed now into more than that because I do work closely with the NHS on some animal assisted interventions.
“And also, a couple of the local authorities now have permission to deliver programmes for young people who are not in education, but that's all revolving around the sled dogs and sled dog sports activities.”
But, although they are in an exciting position now, it took Joe a leap of faith to give up her old life to take on something new and dive into her business head first. She explained: “It's the hardest thing I've ever done, you know. I had really, really decent jobs. I had a really good career and was on the senior management team in my last job setting up provision for communities. But I just felt that I needed to do something different.
“Because we moved to Wales and I was working in Liverpool at the time, I just said to my husband, I actually don't want to be travelling back to Liverpool to go to work, so would he support me to set up my business and so we were having a new start in life and we wanted to crack on, so that's what we did.”
