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Home away from home
New boarding kennel on Highway 1
caters to Deh Cho residents heading south
Nathalie Heiberg-Harrison
Located at kilometre 24, just north of the Alberta border on Highway 1, the kennel will have the capacity to hold at least 10 dogs. Boyd Warner, who will run the facility with his wife and three children, said it is a natural fit for his family. "I have lots of experience looking after dogs, but have never been paid for it," he said. "They've always cost me money, but I'm hoping now they can make me money." Warner, who has lived in the North his whole life, used to be a dog musher when he lived in Yellowknife. Now that his family lives on 16 acres of land, he has traded in his Siberian huskies for great Pyrenees, which are used to protect livestock. Just recently, his dog Savannah had a litter of nine puppies, which adds to his growing family of goats, rabbits, chickens and cats. Warner said they first thought of the idea of opening up a boarding kennel after speaking with friends in Hay River who run one of their own. "They're full all the time because of people going down to Alberta," he said. "Because we home school our kids it allowed us to move out here. We're just looking at this as a business we can partake in. Our kids love animals, too." Warner and his family bought their homestead six years ago and moved there in 2008. He said they started kicking around the idea of opening a boarding kennel a year ago, and constructed the building this past spring. "The building is complete and we're ready for dogs now," he said. The front part of the building is an office and the back houses 10 kennels with both indoor and outdoor runs. Each kennel has pet doors so the dogs can move freely, Warner said. The family will continue to run the Bathurst Inlet Lodge, which Warner's parents started in 1969 with the Kapolak family, in the summer months. During July and August, they will likely hire someone to look after the kennel so they can continue to travel to Nunavut seasonally, Warner said.
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