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Cedarpaws Kennels then went out and purchased two more dogs for the purpose of showing these dogs. Both dogs received their championship before the age of two years. We bred our first registered dog in 1990 and had a litter of seven puppies. We kept four of the puppies for the kennel to grow upon. For Christmas 1991 Karen bought Jim a dog sled. This was the start of our racing kennel. Being an outdoor person and loving the winter season, it was a natural combination to get out and have fun with the dogs. The new sled was put to good use running around the surrounding fields of our kennel in Grafton.
The following fall Jim built a training cart to train some of the kennel dogs to pull. Once the snow was on the ground it was time to get the sled out. With some of the dogs showing progress, Jim decided to enter a sleddog race in Marmora in 1992. The race was a six dog - 7 mile race. With virtually no experience Jim entered the race and finished the first 7 mile in 52 minutes (the 1st place competitor finished in 21 minutes). Undaunted by his finish time and happy just to finish the race, Jim vowed to return the next day and improve. The second day of competition (the same 7 miles) was completed in 38 minutes. A substantial improvement!
For the next three years Jim competed in the Siberian Husky Club of Canada race circuit in Ontario. Learning the tricks of the trade and slowly moving up the competition ladder.
In 1996 the kennel moved from a 2 acre lot in Grafton to a new location 11 kilometers north to Centreton, where we had been traveling to train on weekends. With the new kennel being located on the edge of the Northumberland Forest, came more time to train the dogs and 50 miles of trails to train on. Now with the extra time and more trails, the kennels focus moved from sprint racing to mid-distance. Within two years of moving to the mid-distance category, Jim and the dogs had moved up into the upper echelon of racers in Ontario. In 1999 Jim was ranked in the top ten racers in the mid-distance category here in Ontario. In 2000 Jim and his team became the top ranked Mid-distance Purebred Team in Ontario, and one of the top ten in Canada.
In the year 2001 Jim returned to the Siberian Husky Club of Canada circuit for a end of the year sprint race with his mid-distance team. At Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Jim entered all three race categories with the same dogs. He was racing his team that usually ran 60 mile races in 3, 4 and 6 mile sprint races. This was unheard of, the same dogs competing in three different races against fresh dog teams in each race. It was the perfect ending to a very successful year. The team had already competed in mid-distance races in Ontario, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The team had gone undefeated by any other purebred team in eight mid-distance races and finished the final races of the season at Wasaga Beach with two 1st and a 3rd place at the sprint races.