Well. Let me back track. Back in February, Amanda got us hooked on weight pulling. But, at the time, Howie was only 9 months old, and thus too young to begin weight pulling. So, we focused on obedience and other fun things before we dove into the weight pulling world.
What is weight pulling? Well, basically, you hook a dog up to cart and gradually add weight to see which dog can pull the most. Dogs are grouped by weight class, and there are three categories: rails, wheels, and snow.
Snow is the hardest, because the metal rails of the sled tend to stick to the packed snow surface, and it's harder for the dogs to get the cart free. I also imagine it's harder to pull a sled than a cart.
UKC Weight Pull Nationals, Feb 2009Ryker & Amanda
Then wheels. Which, you guessed it, is a cart on wheels.
Image (C) EnglishMastiff.comRails are the easiest. It's a cart on a rail system, similar to a train track, and once the dog gets the cart free, it's more or less easy sailing.
Image (C) Rock Creek KennelsYou might remember the post about the Bull Breed Splash Bash back in July. Howie pulled for me then, only 336 pounds - and I must correct myself and say I mis-spoke when I said that was enough for him to earn a title.
It wasn't even close.
We tried our hand for real a few weeks after the Splash Bash at an APA event in Warren, MI on July 19th, 2009. Everyone there was super nice and helpful, it was a great place for Howie and I to try our hand at the sport - even though he had very little training and I probably shouldn't have been doing this with him just yet. Why?
Our second pull wasn't as grandiose as the first. August 16th, 2009 was a swelteringly hot day, one that the weather forecasters were claiming to be our hottest day of the year. I almost wasn't going to take him because it was so hot, but Amanda talked me into it, and I decided to take advantage of the fact that many people would be thinking like I was and not bring their dogs. I packed a couple bottles of frozen water, froze some hot dogs the night before so they would stay semi-decent in my cooler, and we were off.
The weather wasn't too bad at 9am for weigh in, and I arrived early to make sure that I could find a spot where I could keep Howie's crate in the shade. Amanda and Bruce arrived, we set up their shade tent, and we waited. The APA group set up a kiddie pool filled with ice so the dogs could keep cool, and the track was covered to try to keep it in the shade.
And it just kept getting hotter.
Luckily, I was right - not many people showed up. We had a total of 15 dogs at this event and we were done by noon. Only this time, sharing a harness wasn't nearly as smooth as it was at the last event. Even though they were still in weight classes, they just ran the dogs in the order they were written down on their records sheet. So, it was quite possible that Ryker would run after Howie. It was messy, until we got our rhythem down.
Luckily, we were done before noon. Ryker took home a 3rd place over-all in his weight division, and Howie just took 2nd place (out of two dogs!) for the day - he weighed in again at 61 pounds, pulled 900# in 8.69 seconds, which was 14.75x his body weight. Nothing exciting, but this is his first year, and we're taking it slow, since I don't have any formal weight pulling training equipment. And even though it wasn't as impressive as his first time out, he had better form, he was more willing to pull, and it nearly 100 degrees that day.
I love that my dog wants to work for me and he puts up with all the crap I put him through.
Our next weight pull is in a couple months at a UKC sanctioned pull. This one will be rails. I'll be sure to update about it!
Also, Howie is going for his TDI testing on Monday August 31st, 2009. Wish us luck! He may not pass, but at least we'll be able to pinpoint the areas we need to work on.
It wasn't even close.
We tried our hand for real a few weeks after the Splash Bash at an APA event in Warren, MI on July 19th, 2009. Everyone there was super nice and helpful, it was a great place for Howie and I to try our hand at the sport - even though he had very little training and I probably shouldn't have been doing this with him just yet. Why?
- He had had no "formal" training before hand, just the one time on the rails track at the Splash Bash, and
- He doesn't even have his own harness. We were borrowing Ryker's (see photo above).
Our second pull wasn't as grandiose as the first. August 16th, 2009 was a swelteringly hot day, one that the weather forecasters were claiming to be our hottest day of the year. I almost wasn't going to take him because it was so hot, but Amanda talked me into it, and I decided to take advantage of the fact that many people would be thinking like I was and not bring their dogs. I packed a couple bottles of frozen water, froze some hot dogs the night before so they would stay semi-decent in my cooler, and we were off.
The weather wasn't too bad at 9am for weigh in, and I arrived early to make sure that I could find a spot where I could keep Howie's crate in the shade. Amanda and Bruce arrived, we set up their shade tent, and we waited. The APA group set up a kiddie pool filled with ice so the dogs could keep cool, and the track was covered to try to keep it in the shade.
And it just kept getting hotter.
Luckily, I was right - not many people showed up. We had a total of 15 dogs at this event and we were done by noon. Only this time, sharing a harness wasn't nearly as smooth as it was at the last event. Even though they were still in weight classes, they just ran the dogs in the order they were written down on their records sheet. So, it was quite possible that Ryker would run after Howie. It was messy, until we got our rhythem down.
Luckily, we were done before noon. Ryker took home a 3rd place over-all in his weight division, and Howie just took 2nd place (out of two dogs!) for the day - he weighed in again at 61 pounds, pulled 900# in 8.69 seconds, which was 14.75x his body weight. Nothing exciting, but this is his first year, and we're taking it slow, since I don't have any formal weight pulling training equipment. And even though it wasn't as impressive as his first time out, he had better form, he was more willing to pull, and it nearly 100 degrees that day.
I love that my dog wants to work for me and he puts up with all the crap I put him through.
Our next weight pull is in a couple months at a UKC sanctioned pull. This one will be rails. I'll be sure to update about it!
Also, Howie is going for his TDI testing on Monday August 31st, 2009. Wish us luck! He may not pass, but at least we'll be able to pinpoint the areas we need to work on.
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