Working as a handler or guide for Green Dog Svalbard is rewarding work, but can be physically exhausting, especially in the beginning. If you have worked as a dog sled guide before, you will know roughly what you can expect. If you are new to it all, you are either fit or will get fit within the next couple of weeks.

Depending if you start as a handler and maybe later on become a guide or as guide from the beginning (who might also occasionally handle), the job will be quite different. Handlers take care of a lot of the daily hard work in the kennel. They have to do a lot of shit-picking, feeding, and preparing food as well as lots of other maintenance work. They are invaluable for keeping a kennel with ~300 dogs running, and they can make a guide’s life easier if one shows them the respect they deserve for their hard work.

As a guide one is in charge of 30 dogs, ranging from 20 kg Alaskan huskies to 40 kg Greenland dogs and mixes between the two. This involves shitpicking, providing them with heavy buckets/cans of breakfast, snacks and dinner (and water in the summer), taking care of wounds and medications and everything in between. A guide takes care of up to 8 guests and goes out with 4 sleds on their own for trips ranging from a couple of hours to 3 days. The guide takes care of the guests from pick-up in town to drop-off and is in charge of getting them dressed in warm suits/hats/gloves, briefed, and on the sleds. She/he provides them with food/ coffee/ cookies at stops, guides them through the ice cave or over a glacier and drops them back to town in one piece.

Although the dogs are as friendly as can be, they can be a handful when they get excited and one sometimes has to step in if they start a fight. Thus, it can sometimes be a bit of a struggle to get two at a time to the sleds without faceplanting in the snow. But finding your favourite clever/cuddly/silly/chill dog and sledding in the stunning landscape in Bolterdalen and beyond is well worth it.

On Svalbard it is essential that one carries a rifle (and a signal pistol) for polar bear protection when sledding or hiking but hopefully you will never have to use it. There is a shooting range in Longyearbyen, and one is shown how to use the rifle (and keep it in good working order). Going to the range with colleagues for practice is good after-work fun.

Another essential tool is a GPS to navigate in bad visibility (snowstorms or fog) and to help find your way in the polar night (hard to navigate when one can’t make out landmarks).

Accommodation is provided mostly on-site at the kennel (10km outside of Longyearbyen) and can range from basic but cosy cabins (single or shared, with electricity and a kitchen but no running water) to shared cabins with running water. One picks up water for cooking at the kennel, does laundry there, and catches a ride with colleagues to town for a shower at the gym. Longyearbyen provides everything one needs and more, and the community is immensely welcoming. Additionally, there seems to be a different festival/event happening every month.

Karina and Martin are awesome bosses who take good care of their handlers and guides and Svalbard is a stunningly beautiful place. The wildlife is amazing and there is nothing better than to see your first polar bear, Arctic fox, or walrus, and the comically short-legged Svalbard reindeer is both amusing to watch and delicious.

I had the pleasure of working at Green Dog Svalbard for Martin and Karina for just over two years. This is a great place to work. From the first to the last day, I enjoyed it. Each day is different, and usually very different, even though the day is structured and planned. Through the work, you get many memories and experiences that will last a long time. The tasks are meaningful, interesting and developing. One’s two-legged colleagues are from all over the world and the community at work is very helpful and supportive. One’s four-legged colleagues have different personalities and individual needs must be addressed for each of them. No matter if it is minus 20 or 10 m / s, they are always ready and the mood is high, which makes it all worth all the hassle.

For 3.5 years I lived and worked at Green Dog. Becoming the foreman for the last year or so. I had never intended to stay so long… But I sort of slipped into the big Green Dog family – Martin, Karina, Freja, Storm, Saga and little Styrk… and of course not forgetting the dogs…

Green Dog is a well-organized family business. It’s progressive in improving its facilities, accommodations, equipment, tours and the well-being of the dogs and its employees. During my time, the structure of the tours changed… Guides had their own teams, equipment and ran their own tours… Allowing for more personal time with guests and a stronger connection with your own dogs…

And of course, it goes without saying my teams were the best!!! Don’t believe what the other guides tell you!

I left the world of dog sledding and Green Dog to pursue other personal interests. Green Dog Svalbard has been by far the best kennel that I have worked for… I wish them all the success in future endeavors.

Just booking a flight tonight to go and visit my old dogs… and I guess I will bump into “the old bosses”.

The combination of professionalism, their will to always deliver 100%, and the great atmosphere around the Green Dog Team is what really makes them stand out from everything else I have experienced when travelling around the world as a wildlife photographer.

I know Martin, Karina and the kids from their time in Northeast Greenland. The many years of experience they have gained by living in the Arctic means that, regardless if they are taking a bunch of kids on a one-hour trip or planning all logistics for a television project, they always deliver.

Magnificent adventures, breathtaking nature, outstanding service and wonderful people are the things that first comes to my mind when I recall my various trips to Svalbard. I have been visiting Svalbard both for holiday and for my job as a freelance wildlife photographer. Every time I visit, I have depended on the team from Green Dog and they have always been extraordinarily helpful and kind to me.