Our Story

Growing up, my family always had dogs. There was Scooter the Pomeranian and Harold the Miniature Schnauzer. But our most influential family dog was a German Shepherd named Crash. He was full of energy and needed an outlet. When I was 17, I began rollerblading alongside Crash as we raced around our neighborhood. He loved it and anytime I touched my rollerblades he would begin barking with excitement. Out of curiosity, I began timing how fast we could make it around our “trail.”

By the time I turned 24 I was fresh out of college and looking to get a dog of my own. Enter: Koivu, the world’s worst puppy! Koivu, a Siberian Husky, completely changed my life. His dad happened to be the lead dog on a recreational sled dog team. I never wanted to have a sled dog team, I had spent 5 years in college learning how to edit movies. But Koivu’s persistence soon had me heading down the right trail. Before his first birthday I found myself back in school taking a course to become a dog trainer.

While in school I volunteered at shelters and rescue groups and saw all the dogs in need of families. I told myself if I ever DID start a sled dog team it would consist of all adopted huskies. Enter: Fleury, Spezza, Mandy, Chara, Roenick, Mikko, Cookie, Backes, Marleau, Kaiya, Bure, Juneau, Yashin, Teemu, Hossa and Nanook. Their ages range from 2 (Hossa) to 16 (Koivu). Each dog has a story that is too long to type! Our “Breakaway Siberians” have competed in 17 sled dog races to date. I met my wife Leah because of Koivu and we have two wonderful boys: Lucca and Brady. Koivu even helped deliver Brady – no joke!

Professionally, I spent 6-months working as a Yard Attendant at daycare before leaving for a dog training position at a local animal clinic. There, I helped the owners launch a doggy daycare program. For the next 5 years I managed both the daycare and training programs. I left to pursue training full time, but my friends had other ideas for me. They needed a place for their dogs to stay while they traveled and before I knew it, we had dogs doing daycare and boarding at our house! From there, that grew into the business we have today – Cool Runners!

The Sled Dog Team