About Us
Our Kennel
We always knew we wanted to keep our dogs as close to family pets as possible. With many sled dog breeds, this can be extremely difficult to achieve as primitive breeds are known to be destructive, in need of room to roam & in need of consistent exercise. Keeping a separate kennel space or yard would make our dogs much easier to manage day-to-day but we believe that a pack-oriented breed like our breed, thrives fully in a family unit. When raised in a separate kennel, these dogs may connect more to their canine companions over their human care takers & we believe to earn their utmost respect, we need to live with our dogs 24/7. So to make up for our closer living quarters, our main service we provide is daily off-leash group hikes to our local community canines! This allows us to bring our own dogs out on daily runs, giving them the room to roam and daily exercise beyond our seasonal sled training.
Megan Nicole Hurst
Owner / Operator
From 1994 to the currant day, my life’s focus has been lead by animal athletics. I grew up riding horses at a competitive equine facility and by the age of 18, I was so focused on pursuing a career in the animal industry my parents allowed me to leave school early to take my first professional contract working for an Olympic dressage rider. I went on to work for Canadas top show jumping and dressage riders, as well as working contracts for American & German riders in Canada, USA, Germany, France & Belgium.
Working for such high caliber equine athletes has provided me with copious experience in animal care & husbandry the average pet owner may never experience. This includes:
High caliber nutrition. Comparing diets based on physical output, health & happiness.
Advanced diet supplementation to aid in athletics, recovery, first aid, pain relief & injury prevention.
Advanced medical first aid.
Oral, intravenous, intramuscular & subcutaneous medication administration. Understanding dosages and applications.
Advanced injury prevention by way of stretches, protective gear, message, recovery wrapping & use of various liniments & poultices.
Effectively building training regiments based on the individuals need for both physical advancement and injury recovery. Including use of dry & wet treadmill and hot walker.
Physiotherapy administration & management involving electro-magnetic therapy, heat & ice therapy, electro-stimulation, photo-stimulation, & laser therapy.
Understanding & comparing various product labels for both general use, effectiveness and pin-pointing contraband compounds to avoid cross-contamination.
Disease prevention and control to avoid or stop spread of viral & bacterial contagions.
In 2016 I hung up my bridle and picked up a dog harness. In the later years of my equestrian career I started becoming more motivated to set down roots & become less transient. After adopting my second dog from a local rescue that focused on helping indigenous communities with over-population & lack of access to veterinarians, I knew I wanted to help. I began taking in foster dogs for the rescue and got serious about learning to train dogs to dog sled. To date I have fostered over 20 dogs of various breeds. I began to help transporting & importing dogs as well as learning the difference of canine digestion, fitness & medical treatments to my former knowledge in equine biology & physiology. During this time I also went back to complete my college education in Medical Laboratory Technology, but quickly realized I wanted to remain in the animal industry.
In 2018, I took my first job working for a dog walker & daycare. It was during this time I realized the dog walking industry was not simply teenagers making side cash but, in fact, professionals with various credentials in canine training & care. Though I was still fostering reservation dogs, the rescue got 2 pure-bred Canadian Eskimo Dogs in and I desperately wanted to work with these dogs as I wanted to know what it was like to sled with real & true sled dogs. This is how I got my first ever Canadian Eskimo Dog, Arcticice Qimmiq “Havik”. I quickly realized I wanted to build a life similar to my equestrian past with my new passion in canine training & fitness.
In 2019, I met my husband Andrew Hurst & moved to Midland, Ontario. With this move & change in life, I put together my own professional canine program based on my experience managing packs of dogs & working with high energy sled dogs. Hurstkin Hikes was born as ‘Tiny Tay Pack Hikes’. My main service was off-leash group hikes & it was a hit in our local community. By the end of my first year, my roster of dogs was full & I’m proud to say most of my first clients are still with me today! Over the years I have made many adjustments to my program, adding and subtracting services such as nail trims, dog training classes, etc. Learning how many dogs was too many dogs and adjusting my rules for which dogs I could accept and which I couldn’t. I grew my company to the point of hiring a second hiker to run group hikes until my wonderful hiker moved out of the area. Getting so big, I felt the business became too impersonal to the dogs and owners so I took a step back & I decided to focus on being the sole service provider, keeping a smaller number of dogs and treating all canine clients as part of my own family. 2019 is also when we got our second Canadian Eskimo Dog, Voyageur Qimmiq Malik.
2021 is when our own pack of dogs really changed. I became more involved in the Canadian Eskimo Dog world & knew that I wanted to focus on doing my part to keep this breed alive. I reached out to the top breeders in the world & welcomed my first breeding bitches into our home. Grand Champion Arcticice Qimmiq Hiku “Hussy” - littermate to our dog Havik & Wolfwalkers Qimmiq Freska “Freak” - a young working prospect. Hussy came to me to attempt her final litter before retiring to our couch with her brother Havik. Summer 2021, Hussy gave us 4 wonderful pups: Grizzly, Atla, Luk & Amma. It is with this breeding that our official kennel name ‘HURSTKIN’ was born. A culmination of my last name, Hurst & the word ‘kin’ meaning family.
Hurstkin Kennel- Hurst Family Kennel
Our Mission
To promote the Inuit dog south of the Arctic while developing a breeding program honouring the traditional purpose and history of this primitive canine.
To give back to those who came first by sending dogs to working teams in the arctic. By doing this, Hurstkin is able to help supply purebred qimmiq back to their home land and peoples, while also keeping our dogs genetic roots firmly planted in the north.
First and foremost Hurstkin Kennel is a home-based ‘kennel’ however, we advocate for traditional lifestyle for a landrace shaped by Arctic life. We believe a family oriented pack dog should live in close proximity to their pack- human & canine. We may personally provide a spoiled lifestyle for our breeding and team dogs but also advocate for those who keep their teams in a more traditional method. We do not believe in forcing our modern way of life on those who came first and made these dogs who they are today. These dogs remain true to their ancestors, thus remain built for harsh arctic life.