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Host rating
100 %
Last replied
18 Jun 2025
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100.0 %
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Description
Hello all!
We are Heinrich, Kristina, Hanna and Helena. We live in South-Estonia with 30+ sleddogs (Alaskan Malamutes and Alaskan Huskies). We have also a Giant Schnauzer and a Airedale Terrier. Our dogs are in different age – from puppies to retired dogs. Our sleddogs are doing their original work – pulling a sled or wheel cart.
Dogs and households are taken care of by Heinrich (54), Kristina (48) and 15-year old twins Hanna and Helena. Heinrich mainly deals with dogs, Kristina cares the household and girls job is learning well at school. Kristina works also as freelance journalist and writes articles for many newspapers and magazines.
Our home is located in Estonia, in easten part of Tartu county, village Ahunapalu. There are forests around us and a big wetland area with lakes and rivers. That is the main charm of this place! Here you can walk at the woods for days without meeting any people. But you will meet different wild animals, who like the untouchable nature and privacy. Nature here are rich and offers lot of good stuff – wildberries, mushrooms, herbs. We collect them all and Kristina will show you her hidden berrieplaces.
Near to us is located lake Peipsi, which is the biggest lake in Estonia. Closest towns are Räpina and Põlva ca 35 kilometers away from us. Tartu, the second biggest town in Estonia, is located 45 kilometers from our home and we have a bus connection to Tartu as well.
Our home consist of two homesteads – in one house we live and in second we have our sleddog kennel. We don’t have close neibourghs. Both homesteads needs daily maintenance, development and lot of building works, since we moved here recently.
Most busiest time in our kennel is of course the autumn and winter season, when we train our dogs on snow and Heinrich goes to the sleddog races. In summertime our kennel is open for a guests, but generally our dogs have a holiday.
We need help with the daily dogcare – feeding, cleaning, brushing, training. You can learn to bild a dog team and drive this aswell. We also need help in daily household, in different repair and construction works, gardening, cleaning etc.
Note, that our life with lovely sleddogs seemes very fun and kind of entertainment, but actually it consist lot of routines. Sometimes our days lasts long.
We need you for seasons:
1. Spring - April, May (June)
2. Summer - June, July, August
3. Autumn - September, October, November
4. Winter - December, January, February, March
If you are interested to join us, then please:
1. choose the season and check the CALENDER of AVAILABILITY (red means that this month is not available)
2. if months of season you choosed are available in the calender (green) and if you are interested to come, write us and introduce yourself
3. please do not waste our time if you are not seriously interested or you try other hosts at the same time! There is absolutely no point in sending a request if you are not interested in responding to our answer...
Who we are looking for?
We prefer you can come alone
You should be at least 21 years old
You are independent and able to work and entertain yourself alone. You are also able to work in team with our family and of course good with dogs
You are in good shape both mentally and physically and you are able to do physical work every day
You are self motivated, animal loving, hard working person who can work long hours when needed (depends of the season and weather)
You have to be adaptable to variation in the length of working days (depends of weather and season). In some periods you have to work without days off, and then again sometimes you have to rest several days in a row
You like to live a simple life in the middle of nature and you are not afraid to woods, dark nights and wild animals
You tolerate the routin – life with cute sleddogs seems fun, but taking care of them is actually quite routin work
You are ready to work outside with every weather condition and every time of day
You don’t need previous experience with dogs, but you must have an interest in them and dog mushing as well.
You must not have a allergy to dog hair!
You must be interested of sleddogs and such a lifestyle
You have to be a fast learner and understand the logic of dealing with sled dogs and life logic of remote area in overall
Better if you have driving license.
Better if you are NOT vegetarian, because we love to eat fish and meat
Better if you are open minded and without expetations
Don’t take your own pet with you, this is not allowed
We don't accept smokers
Minimum stay 2 months
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Interests
Sustainability
Nature
Outdoor activities
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
You will be the part of our family. We will introduce you Estonian traditions and you will live like us – side by side with nature. Of couse you will learn a little estonian language. Kristina and the girls are enganged in Estonian folkdance and take part some dancefestivals. You are also welcome to partizipate.
Kristina will show you surrounding forests and share with you her secret mushroom and berry collecting places. She will teach you, how to prepare the berries and mushroom for winter. She will also show you the hiking trails near to us and best swimming places. Heinrich will teach you all, what concerns the sleddogs. You can practice dog mushing and hiking in wild nature. You can learn and practice canoeing and reach to very wild places our wetland area.
Help
Daily dogcare - feeding, cleaning, training, socializing puppies. Household works, gardening works, building works.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Estonian: Fluent
Russian: Fluent
Accommodation
We can offer you for living a private cabin in Sleddogs Training Centre. In an 100-year main house, which is build in traditional way, we have a kitchen for you. In kitchen you can cook for yourself, but we try at least once a day eat all together and you are welcome as well.
The cabin is well isolated and heatable, so it's enough warm even in cold winterdays. There is also a bed with linens.
There is no sewerage system, but you can use dry toilet outside. You can get the cold and very pure borehole water for everyday use. We have an old style sauna, where it’s easy to heat water for washing and of course, there is possibility to heat and use sauna as well. Next to the sauna we have a pond for swimming and that’s awesome, especially in summertime. In the second homested where our family lives you can use the shower and washing machine.
What else ...
Interesting places near to us:
Emajõe-Suursoo (Emajõe big bog) nature reserv - a beatyful place for hiking, collecting cranberries and being in nature. Here you can meet different kind of wild animals.
Lake Peipsi
Piirissaar - a small island in Lake Peipsi, where people leave in old traditional way and grow famous Peipsi onions in an old organic way
Taevaskoda outcrops - one of the most frequently visited sites in southern Estonia. The sandstone outcrops and ancient river form the most beautiful part of the Ahja River Landscape Reserve. The place is full of legends.
Tartu - second biggest town in Estonia. Theatre, cinemas, museums, shopping centres etc. 45 km from us.
Räpina - small town near to lake Peipsi. 35 km from us
Mooste manor complex - beautifully renovated old manor. 23 km from us.
Põlva - small town 35 km from us.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
One
My animals / pets
Feedback (9)
Jens was also helping with dogs daily care like cleaning and watering. He knows how to prepare sleddog team for training because he have previous… read more
I stayed with these guys for 3 weeks and they are very nice and fun - laughing a lot:) you will live in a small cabin close to the dogs around 500m from the main house where the others live. You will have to be good by yourself as you will be alone at the cabin after work is done.… read more
Clément is very friendly and responsible person, remarkably adaptable and able to learn new things and work techniques very fast. He quickly understands the core of things and the logic of operation. His working ethic is… read more
There is so much to learn about dogs, Estonian nature and life in general! Thank you Heinrich… read more
She helped us with taking care of dogs (cleaning, feeding, brushing, harnessing, walking etc) and all kind of other works. She learned everything quickly and without any problem. She has a… read more
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Jens was also helping with dogs daily care like cleaning and watering. He knows how to prepare sleddog team for training because he have previous… read more
I stayed with these guys for 3 weeks and they are very nice and fun - laughing a lot:) you will live in a small cabin close to the dogs around 500m from the main house where the others live. You will have to be good by yourself as you will be alone at the cabin after work is done.… read more
Clément is very friendly and responsible person, remarkably adaptable and able to learn new things and work techniques very fast. He quickly understands the core of things and the logic of operation. His working ethic is… read more
There is so much to learn about dogs, Estonian nature and life in general! Thank you Heinrich… read more
She helped us with taking care of dogs (cleaning, feeding, brushing, harnessing, walking etc) and all kind of other works. She learned everything quickly and without any problem. She has a… read more
It was nice to… read more
Clémence is very helpful and good-natured, hardworking and purposeful. If she can stay focused,… read more
Jakob is a very open person and a good communicator, remarkably… read more
I was… read more
Eline adapted quickly with our everyday life and started immediately learn how ta take care of… read more
Fiona helped with everything – taking care of dogs, doing household works and even with cloudberry picking. Never complaining, even about extreme early wake-ups in the morning. In summertime our days sometimes… read more
Not only did I learn a lot about how to keep working Dogs, do sled dog racing and farm work. I was also lucky enough to join Kristina on her tours through the bog and forest for berry picking and mushroom… read more
I got warmly welcomed by Heinrich, Kristina and Helena and Hanna, living in the famous Ahunapalu village where there are… read more
Joel helped us to renovate the old greenhouse. He was also very helpful with construction works when we started to built a new cabin. Many works Joel did first time, but he learned really quickly.… read more
Heinrich, Kristina, Hanna, Helena and Kusti are a wonderful family, the best hosts you could imagine! With them I learned a lot of different things, such as heat the stove, cut wood, start a building, renovating… read more
First of all, thank you very much to all of you for the wonderful time together. We enjoyed every minute of the time with you. By joining this wonderful family you will learn… read more
In August we start with dogtrainings after a summer vacacion. That mean, that our days starts very early with trainingsessions in forest. Cris and Simone quickly learned all dognames… read more
