OUR STORY

Erä-Susi’s sled dog ken­nel was for­med in Ruka-Kuusa­mo in 1998. It’s situa­ted just off the bor­der of Lapland in Nort­hern Fin­land and has grown from a small pack of hus­kies to a dog sled tour ken­nel with 150 Alas­kan and Sibe­rian hus­kies, along with ani­mal farm which inclu­des a varie­ty of small animals.

We aim to pro­vi­de you with the chance to expe­rience the magic of win­ter in Nort­hern Fin­land in a tra­di­tio­nal way that gives you the chance for both a rug­ged wild­li­fe expe­rience during and a fur­ry cudd­le afterwards.

The farm was purc­ha­sed by the cur­rent owners Mer­vi Ran­ta­mä­ki & Juk­ka Kei­nä­nen in 2017 and since then we have made seve­ral major impro­ve­ments to the ken­nel – with a focus on dog wel­fa­re and sus­tai­nable tourism. 

Mer­vi has a life-long expe­rience with trai­ning and bree­ding a varie­ty of dogs and focuses on the cus­to­mer ser­vice and dog wel­fa­re side. Meanw­hi­le, Juk­ka has seve­ral years of expe­rience in agricul­tu­re and res­tau­rant work and focuses on the behind the sce­nes ope­ra­tions. He takes care of sled tracks, mac­hi­ne­ry repairs and that we have all the neces­sa­ry tools to work in the ken­nel. Juk­ka is also a res­tau­rant chef so he is res­pon­sible for our cafe.

MARTIJN 

Mar­tijn from Hol­land works for us as a safa­ri gui­de and he has been wor­king at Erä-Sude since 2016. Mar­tijn “Sauk­ko” likes to enter­tain cus­to­mers and especial­ly with children he will find imme­dia­te­ly a com­mon tone.

Sauk­ko have his own Sibe­rian hus­ky named Chap and they go hiking toget­her a lot. He would like to have to set up his own litt­le ken­nel and take more huskies.

JOANNA 

Joan­na came to work for us as an ani­mal atten­dant in Novem­ber 2018 from Helsinki.

She takes care of all our ani­mals health (from lla­mas to hus­kies) with a conscien­tious, calm, deter­mi­ned and posi­ti­ve atti­tu­de and ani­mal wel­fa­re is the most impor­tant to her.

Joan­na can be found ser­ving in our safa­ri shop and café­te­ria. She is also res­pon­sible of our amazing trai­nees, boo­king sys­tem as well as the main­te­nance of web­si­tes and our social media.