TikTok-Famous Jackson Dogsled Business Started With A Dog And A Dream

JACKSON — Snake River Ranch is at the foot of the Tetons near Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. It gets a lot of proposals from people who want to use their land for this or that.

Six years ago came a proposal from Call of the Wyld that owner Abby Tarver agrees was kind of crazy at the time. Tarver was a newbie in the dogsledding business, cold-calling anyone and everyone in Jackson Hole to give her new venture a try.

“We didn’t even know they were at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s door,” Tarver told Cowboy State Daily. “I was like, ‘Just give me any piece of land, and I’ll live in a wall tent with my dogs.’” 

That would never do, of course. Snake River Ranch couldn’t have Tarver living in a tent with her dogs. But it was intrigued enough by Tarver’s proposal to give dogsledding a shot. So, it let her rent one of the small ranches it had for employees. 

Now six years later, Call of the Wyld is an established dogsledding tour business that offers an epic experience. Its popular TikTok channel has more than 61,000 followers and 3.3 million likes.

It generally sells out every season and is a great Wyoming tourism success story, but it’s also one that had a bit of a long and winding road and an uncertain future from the start.

Electra, The Lifesaver

Like many young people, Tarver wasn’t really sure what she wanted to do with her life. She was looking for purpose here, there and everywhere, but nothing she tried felt exactly right. Even though it made a nice Facebook post that her friends would “ooh” and “ahh” over. 

But inside, it didn’t really feel like herself. It felt empty and hollow.

“I was working for this company called Back Roads, and I was in the middle of southern Utah during July,” she said. “And I think I was going a little bit crazy with the heat.”

When she happened upon a snowy documentary called “The Great Alone,” she tuned in. It was about famous Iditarod musher, Lance Mackey, who won the 1,000-mile endurance run from Anchorage to Nome four times. 

The documentary captivated her — so much so that she quit her job.

“I drove all the way back to Jackson, and I showed up at this guy’s house and begged him for a job,” Tarver said. “And that’s how I got started was at the Continental Divide Dog Sled Adventures up at Togwotee Mountain Lodge.”

Once Jackson’s dogsled season ended, Tarver did what a lot of Jackson Hole guides do. She headed for Alaska.

“They told me that I didn’t need a car to go up there, so I flew up there, and then I was living in like, this remote employee village outside of town,” Tarver recalled. “I was very isolated. And it definitely wasn’t the best environment for me.”

It was during that difficult period that she got her first sled dog, Electra. The dog proved to be a lifesaver.

“I had actually gone through this, like, kind of breakdown,” Tarver said. “I was kind of struggling mentally. And so when my manager Becky offered me Electra, I don’t know, it just kind of felt like fate.”

Sled Dogs Aren’t Good Pets

Sled dogs are known for their high-energy personalities. In fact, they’re so high-energy that getting one as a pet isn’t something Tarver would ever recommend.

They’re wild and naughty and destructive, Tarver readily admits.

“She was an absolute nightmare as a pet,” she said about Electra. “She destroyed everything. And I lied to my parents. I told them she was house-trained so I could like go home and stay with them for little bit. But she definitely was not.”

People told Tarver she should rehome Electra because the dog was so difficult to control, but here’s the thing for Tarver: Electra had needs that could not be ignored. 

And that was exactly what Tarver needed right then to get her feet on the right path — her path — in life.

“She kind of forced me to have a purpose,” Tarver said. “She kind of just kept pulling me toward like the greater goal. I had known before getting her that I really wanted to have my own (dogsled) team, but she was the catalyst for all of it.”

It was about this same timeframe that Tarver met her future husband, Michael Tarver. 

The first thing she made sure her new boyfriend knew was that she fully intended to own a sled dog team for Electra someday.

To her surprise, Michael wasn’t against the idea at all. In fact, he encouraged Tarver to jump right in. 

So, that’s exactly what they did. The very next winter, the couple bought 17 more sled dogs.

“Talk about all in,” Tarver said. “We spent pretty much our last dime on that team.”

Do-Or-Die Moment

Eighteen sled dogs is an awful lot of puppy chow, and if one sled dog is demanding, 17 more are relentless when it comes to their desire to pull and to run.

Once the Tarvers had all those dogs they knew they were on a timeline. They needed to make their business work right off the bat, in one season, and they needed a dogsled tour to run them on.

Abby sent out letters, she made cold calls and at first, got nothing. Not even one response.

She just kept trying, and finally hooked up with Snake River Ranch. It was her only taker, and it was a godsend. 

But she realizes now it was also a huge leap of faith for both them and the ranch. 

“They had no idea if we were going to be successful,” Abby said. “Like, all they had was my word. And we didn’t know if they’d want to continue working with us after the first season. What if we put in all this work and they were just like, not anymore?”

Where Elbow Grease And Luck Meet

Ultimately, Abby found the key was just having some faith in the vision she had for her life, and taking her chances.

“Sometimes we just have to believe in ourselves,” Abby said.

It doesn’t hurt to have a lot of elbow grease and determination, as well as a dash of old-fashioned luck. That came in the form of a TikTok account Abby started on the fly, as something of a joke. 

“I was like many people, ‘Oh this is just something silly. It’ll be a fad,’” Abby recalled. “So, I just started posting videos of our dogs for fun. And I would joke around and say, ‘I’m gonna be TikTok famous.’”

Wyoming has 6,000 businesses that use TikTok to one degree or another, Abby has since learned. Collectively, these businesses generate $38 million for the state’s gross domestic product, supporting 410 jobs, according to an analysis by Oxford Analytics.

Abby’s TikTok account may have started as a joke, but it’s become serious business. 

She’s been told by customers that Call of the Wyld’s TikTok stream has helped people decide that they do want to go through with a dogsled tour, and she knows that’s why they’re able to so often sell out their seasons.

Thanks to that success, Call of the Wyld has doubled the size of its operation more than once, and they owns 75 sled dogs. 

The Tarvers have been able to branch out into summer cart tours, like Alaska offers, and they’ve added a fun little running club, where participants tie themselves to a sled dog, which then helps pull them along faster and faster. A great training exercise for both human and dog.

“I don’t label myself as ‘TikTok famous,’” Abby said. “But it’s pretty funny how wide of a reach this has given us. It doesn’t feel like fame, though, so much as we’ve gathered a community.”

One of the things she likes best about that community is that she knows many followers may never be able to do a dog sled ride, due to mobility issues, or just the expense of traveling to a place like Jackson Hole.

“But it’s really neat to have people who have the same dreams that we’ve all had, and we can bring that to them virtually,” Abby said.

Now when Abby makes a post on social media, it no longer feels hollow at all. It finally feels like the world is her home, and by following her heart, she found the right place in it.

Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.