Weight Pulling

Kylie Sommer · August 2012

So this morning I took my little dog, Lucky, outside and had my nephew help me set up a weight pulling wagon for Lucky. We started him low(at about 80 pounds) and slowly progressed him up to 215 pounds! I was really suprised at how he did considering his size and that he has never done weight pulling before! We plan on taking him out again in about 30 minutes-1 hour and see how he does again! I will post pictures soon:)

Zagari Wolf · August 2012

Be careful! You need to start out slow and light. It can hurt your dog to pull so much with no training at all. He needs to build up those muscles. You also need a pulling harness, not just a regular walking harness. Weight pull is a fun sport and a lot of dogs enjoy working. Glad he's found something he likes but again, please take it easy and work your way up. I'd hate to see him get hurt.

Kylie Sommer · August 2012

We have a special pulling harness for him, so no worries there. And we started him light, almost 80 pounds, which was a breeze for him. Today, he worked for about 4 and a half hours with plenty of breaks and rests to finally get to 215, but I only allowed him to pull that once and that was his very last pull of the day. My neice and nephew love to watch him and he loves to do it, his tail never stopped wagging and every time we stopped he kept going back for more.

Zagari Wolf · August 2012

Ok, it just sounded like today was his first time and you started him at 80 pounds. That's way too much in my opinion. Most start out with just dragging chains and light things for a while to build up muscle mass.

Kylie Sommer · August 2012

It was his first day weight pulling a cart and such, but he has been working and running courses for a while now and has extremely good muscle tone. For him, 80 pounds was like dragging a feather. He practically sprinted with it behind him. Thanks for the advise, though, I appreciate it!

Animalsaremything · August 2012

I agrre with Zag, some dogs will pull just to make everyone happy. I dont do weight pulling since I have a different type of dog, but when I read it and you said he was a little dog, you said 2115 lbs. I thought to myself tht could almost pull a man.

Kylie Sommer · August 2012

He is little for a weight pulling dog is what I ment. He is about a medium sized dog, with shorter legs but good muscle tone and strength. He has pulled both me and my boyfriend down the street before chasing a cat. He actually dragged us on the ground. After that, my boyfriend suggested I work on using his strength, so I did. We started off building up his muscle tone more with runs and other things, today was the first day we had him weight pull for real.

Animalsaremything · August 2012

Oh okay I see, still be careful, I would get him checked by the vet to make sure his hips and stuff like that are good.

Kylie Sommer · August 2012

tiny dancer wrote:

Oh okay I see, still be careful, I would get him checked by the vet to make sure his hips and stuff like that are good.

All of my dogs are vet checked as pups. And constantly visit the vet as they are extremely active dogs. He was actually just taken to the vet yesterday and had a clean, presteige bill of health.

Animalsaremything · August 2012

Okay that is good!.

Adrianna32 · August 2012

Of course I have to comment on this. ANY dog that has been trained to pull can do so, ANY breed. I've seen teacup breeds win pulling competitions. The whole point is training; that slow build up that is required to make a winning weight puller. I can definitely say with confidence that a dog with no prior training WILL eventually get hurt if you skip the build up part and just randomly hook him up to 200+ pound carts, regardless of harness type / build. Although his tail was wagging the whole time and he looked as though he enjoyed his pull, you have to remember to be careful. Eventually the cart gets too much weight put on, and the dog tries his hardest just to make you happy; but blows his back out instead because his body wasn't properly trained for the job. I've seen it multiple times. That being said, weight pull is in my opinion the best K9 sport out there, and when done right it can only make a dog better... whether you guys are just pulling for fun or planning to compete one day. My baby boy, Bully, trained for three years before competing, and he could eventually pull over 8,000 pounds. My current best is Laru, she's been trained for four years and can pull over 6,000+ pounds. Both of them started out by pulling an EMPTY cart around the yard. I'm tellin ya, slow-build-up is the way to go! xD

Kylie Sommer · August 2012

I don't think competition level, just for fun. Like I said, we did work on building him up. He started on a slightly weighted chain and moved up to 200+. I just wanted to show his achievement.

Adrianna32 · August 2012

You said you started him at 80 pounds, Zag mentioned using the chain(s). But I understand what you're saying, and I recognize his accomplishment. You should be proud that you've got a strong boy. : )

Kylie Sommer · August 2012

I went 80 pounds today. Before this post, we worked on building him up. Today was his biggest stretch, that is why I posted that:) And pft, 215ounds compared to 8k pounds, it's nothing. Haha:) The chain was Basicly his leash tied to a flat disc my boyfriend has, not exactly a 'chain'. Either way, we did work on slowly bringing him up.

Kazuko · August 2012

I'd also suggest training him to not go for cats before training him to pull a ton of weight.

If he pulled you and your boyfriend down the street already, it can get really dangerous really fast. You alternately could use a special type of harness, a senior chief over here has one for his weight pulling cane corso. Basically if the dog pulls you, the harness pulls his front legs out from under him. That's my main fear when it comes to training my collie mix for pulling. I weigh less than a hundred pounds, no way in hell am I going to encourage her to pull more than ten times that before I can get her to stop charging butterflies, y'know? xD But one day I'd totally like to start pulling with her too, if only to drain some of this energy she showers me with at 6 in the morning whenever I wake up...

Kylie Sommer · August 2012

Kazuko wrote:

I'd also suggest training him to not go for cats before training him to pull a ton of weight. If he pulled you and your boyfriend down the street already, it can get really dangerous really fast. You alternately could use a special type of harness, a senior chief over here has one for his weight pulling cane corso. Basically if the dog pulls you, the harness pulls his front legs out from under him. That's my main fear when it comes to training my collie mix for pulling. I weigh less than a hundred pounds, no way in hell am I going to encourage her to pull more than ten times that before I can get her to stop charging butterflies, y'know? xD But one day I'd totally like to start pulling with her too, if only to drain some of this energy she showers me with at 6 in the morning whenever I wake up...

I get what you mean:) I think the cat startled him or something, usually he isn't that bad, either way, I will look into the harness. Thanks for the info!

EmmeZoec · August 2012

You go hunting with some of your other dogs, right? You could use the place you hunt or run with your dogs to hook a small drag (like a gallon of water) up to his pulling harness and start taking him out for walks to build his pulling muscles up. Just because he has a clean bill of health doesn't mean he can go and pull right away, just like a normal healthy person doesn't start weightlifting by going strait to the Olympics. Also, 4 hours seems like awhile to be working, especially in something a physically demanding as weight pulling. Another perk of building him up with a drag is being able to teach him to pull on command, not just because you're flashing a toy that he wants in his face. Even though you say you are going slowly, it sounds like you need to go slower. A champion is not trained in a day and if you rush your dog he is going to get seriously hurt.

Kylie Sommer · August 2012

EmmeZoe wrote:

You go hunting with some of your other dogs, right? You could use the place you hunt or run with your dogs to hook a small drag (like a gallon of water) up to his pulling harness and start taking him out for walks to build his pulling muscles up. Just because he has a clean bill of health doesn't mean he can go and pull right away, just like a normal healthy person doesn't start weightlifting by going strait to the Olympics. Also, 4 hours seems like awhile to be working, especially in something a physically demanding as weight pulling. Another perk of building him up with a drag is being able to teach him to pull on command, not just because you're flashing a toy that he wants in his face. Even though you say you are going slowly, it sounds like you need to go slower. A champion is not trained in a day and if you rush your dog he is going to get seriously hurt.

Yeah, I have hunting dogs. He actually goes out on hunts with us sometimes. The four hours was over the majority of the day and my boyfriend is working on the commands with him. Thanks for the help!

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Weight Pulling

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