About AKKO

AKKO Sports, your source for high quality dog-powered sports products

AKKO Sports is a Canadian dog-powered sports equipment producer that specializes in sled and land-based dog pulling sports.

We are proud to build and provide products which accomplish our primary goal – permitting the canine athlete to perform its function as efficiently and as comfortably as possible.

AKKO Sports was founded in 1975 in Dorval, QC, Canada by Judy and Bryan Pearce due to the need of harnesses for their own sled dog team. Their passion for sled dogs and racing them has driven them to create the best possible gear for the sport.

Training and competing has given the AKKO team a unique opportunity to observe harnesses in action in many diverse situations and then to make appropriate modifications to the AKKO line. Our gear can be seen on teams in Canada, the US, Great Britain, Europe, Greenland, Iceland and even in South Africa.

Over the last four decades, Judy and Bryan have been privileged to travel and race across North America. From their home base in Quebec, to Ontario, Manitoba, the New England States, the American mid-west and all the way up to the Yukon and Alaska! They have participated in three World Championships with their own team and supplied a team for visiting competitors from South Africa.

In 2010 before Judy and Bryan decided to retire, they passed their vast knowledge on to Christina Spati. Christina grew up on a dairy farm in Switzerland where she developed a passion for dogs at an early age, observing and working with their farm dogs Entlebucher and Bernese Mountain Dogs. Carting or Drafting was the first pulling sport Christina was exposed to. When she moved to Canada in 2006 she got in to Canicross and Bikejoring with her dogs and later on into sledding. She still enjoys all three activities on a regular basis and continues to improve the gear as her predecessor Judy did.

Sadly, Judy Pearce passed away in January, 2016. AKKO Sports wouldn’t be the successful company it is today without the creative and innovative mind of Judy. She will be forever missed.

We hope you will enjoy your dog-powered sport as much as we do.

Your AKKO Sports Team

Sledding activity

The last 40 years in sled dog sports has seen remarkable changes, touching every element of this complex activity. Sleds have evolved from traditional wooden sleds to high tech aluminum and plastic models and along with them the runners have gone from plain steel to ultra dense plastics and QCR (quick change runners) systems.

Sledding activity has spiraled out from North America – with its long history of working and recreational dog sledding – to every continent, even to areas near the equator! Organizations became established in North America and Europe to standardize rules and quality of events. This last two decades have seen ever more countries enthusiastically embrace this sport.

The competitive sector has undergone its own expansion beyond the original

Open class sprint races – with as many dogs as you dared to run, to…
Limited class sprint races – running a fixed number of dogs, to…
Long distance races, in both North America and Europe.

Skijoring & land-based activities

These new exciting sectors evolved from ski-pulka, developed in the mid-nineteenth century in Scandinavia during its time of war. The original ski-pulka remains today, along with its popular adaptation, skijoring. Here the dog/human team ski without the pulk (enclosed sled).

The IFSS (International Federation of Sled dog Sports) has been influenced in introducing dry land competitive activities, including carts, bicycles, scooters and yes, even competitors running on foot with their dogs – called “canicross”. On the recreational side, here in our area some daring young people are even skateboarding, rollerblading and snowboarding with their dogs! If you have a dog and want to be active, there is a sport for you!

Throughout all this expansion harnesses have undergone their own changes. Forty or fifty years ago there were basically two styles of harnesses in use: the first, a standard open back harness, followed shortly after by the X-back harness, developed to fit better and work more efficiently.

AKKO Sports has been committed to building harnesses that allow canine athletes to perform at their best. With that in mind, we redesigned and introduced the X-back harness and the JH half back harness to fit the demand from expanding range and breeds of dogs involved in our sport. We can supply harnesses for dogs from the very small, 4.5 kgs/10 lbs, to the very large weights of 90 kgs/200 lbs.