Rebecca Gebeshuber and her husband didn’t adopt CoCo -- the dog adopted them.

Having just lost one of their dogs, the couple, hoping to find an older canine companion for their dachshund Darwin, took the plunge and drove to Whistler in September to meet former sled dogs.

“She basically just sat down and adopted my husband,” recalls Gebeshuber. “It was clear she was confident and affectionate and that she wanted to come home with us.”

The loveable dog was such a good fit in their household that, like many other Whistler sled dog adopters, the Gebeshubers decided to expand their ‘sleddie’ family several weeks ago by adopting another dog, Cooper.

The pair are some of the nearly 180 ‘retired’ sled dogs that have successfully transitioned from working dogs to a housepets after the infamous Whistler sled-dog cull.

Outdoor Adventures of Whistler ceased operations after it was discovered that employee Robert Fawcett was ordered to kill 56 sled dogs during a business slump following the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The not-for-profit Whistler Sled Dog Company took over operations in 2011 and, with the goal to become an ethical sledding company in mind, immediately began adopting out seniors and puppies from their 189 dogs — often sending 20 of the most sociable dogs at a time to shelters around the province.

“I got out of my truck (in Whistler) and there’s all these dogs, about 200, and there’s no people. They’re all howling and I walk in and just started crying,” recalls Penny Stone, the former manager of the Victoria SPCA on her first visit to the kennels.

“That day I took 23 of those dogs back to the Victoria SPCA. I cried the whole way home. We were going to give them lives but what about the ones left behind?”

In May 2013, after running for two seasons, the ‘boutique’ sledding organization was faced with the grim reality that caring for the animals solely from funds raised during the short four-month season in Whistler wasn’t economically feasible.

“The reality is that we had 89 dogs and we were going to shut down. That’s where it became a little bit more urgent to ensure these dogs had a better opportunity to integrate into homes,” says Whistler Sled Dog Company volunteer board member Sue Eckersley, who adopted one of the dogs herself.

Things kicked into high-gear. Mushers were laid off and shelter volunteers from the Whistler Animals Galore (WAG) shelter were brought in, even spending the night in tents with the dogs.

Dogs were carted off to WAG daily so they could be exposed to a whole new world of cars, noise, stairs, furniture, walking on leashes and playing with toys. They would then make their way into homes or SPCA branches where they worked with teams of volunteers and behavioural specialists.

“It was a challenge at times, but at the end of the day, they’re just regular dogs,” says Shannon Broderick, the executive director of WAG. “For me, it’s was the same amount of work as a puppy.”

For Leah MacInnes, her once-nervous retired ‘sleddies,’ who once leap-frogged from the kitchen island to coffee tables and couldn’t grasp the concept of glass doors, have become the best dogs she’s ever had.