Since several years Asko works with Huskies. He has mainly Siberian Huskies and since short times also a few Alaskan Huskies. All the dogs mean a lot to him and put, together with his helpers, a lot of time feeding, caring and training them. Today, more than 100 dogs live in Saija.

 (Beth)

But of course the dogs need to be fed two times a day and kennel need to be cleaned all year around. Our Huskies get watery soup with dogsfood and fresh fish for breakfast and a full meal of dogsfood and fresh meat for dinner. During the overnight dogsled safaris, each guest takes care of his or her own dog´s team.

 (Blue and Alex as wheel dogs)

The best age of a sled dog is between 5-9 years. At that time they have plenty of experience and are strong. At the age of 12-13 they will go into pension or will be running only short distances.

 (Asko, Alice and Tom)

Our Huskies have holiday in summertime. Then it is much to warm and they can relax and laying in the sun. During this time it is especially important to improve the contact with the dogs and let the youngsters integrate in the group.

(Kame and Kiri)

In autumn we start preparing for wintertime. The physical condition of the dogs is build up slowly; we start with a training loop of 13 km.

At the beginning of the season, end of December, the dogs should be able to handle the 25-35 distances.

The youngsters start to run in front of the sledge at the age of 12 month. They start running next to the experienced ones, so that they can learn from them.

(Doris, 12 years old)

During our dogsled trips, each guest drives his or her own sled with 4-6 dogs. Asko put the teams together. Each team has two lead dogs and two wheel dogs. When a dog meets the right requirements, it can become a lead dog. They are not necessarily the strongest dogs but at least they are the cleverest.