Well I managed to talk my 15 year old daughter to wake up at 5:30 am on Saturday AM to leave and come with me . We braved the elements we had about 7 inches of snow overnight and had an interesting drive out to the sticks it was about 150 miles door to door. Thank goodness we have Snow tires on the van or else it would've been real scary not just moderately scary.

I got their in time to weigh in and register for the weight pull with my Malinois. They have an under 60lb weight class and we were up against small Malamutes, Alaskans and Siberians. I've heard Pit Bulls do well in this competition weight class but Ontario has a BSL ban in effect so Pits are getting increasingly rare in this neck of the woods. It was a lot of fun bringing my Malinois into a competition like this.

I have been working on her fitness with a scooter and a sled harness for French Ring. I swear she is as strong as my old 85lb Malamute Timber wolf X. I did the weight pull to help out her fitness as I hope to obtain her Brevet and FR1 level this year and if time allows a herding title, BH and AD.

Here is my friend's Alaskan dog 'Cliff' Digging in @ approx 500lbs
http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/bb132/geoff-jazz/Dog%20Training/Apsley%20Winterfest/?action=view&current=DSCN4821.jpg


Sasha about to pull for the first time .. The sledge was 250lbs unloaded...
http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/bb132/geoff-jazz/Dog%20Training/Apsley%20Winterfest/?action=view&current=DSCN4780.jpg

She maxed out at 370lbs but she had to assisted. She is so used to being back tied at bitework she didn't grab the concept. The dog that won class under 60lb class pulled 640 lbs! It was a Greenland dog that I didn't get a picture of and the 2 runner up dogs pulled 610lbs are both what you call Alaskan Huskies ( Hi Performance mutts).

Obligatory Puppy Pic!!
http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/bb132/geoff-jazz/Dog%20Training/Apsley%20Winterfest/?action=view&current=DSCN4824.jpg

The whole album ..
http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/bb132/geoff-jazz/Dog%20Training/Apsley%20Winterfest/

Hopefully there will be a couple more pulls this summer and the Mal(inois) will get a chance to kick some Mal(amute) butt .. LOL!

Great pics Geoff!! Loved the whole album (and especially the "head honcho and his hat"! :grin. The little video clip was wonderful too - nothing translates that extreme canine enthusiasm like a little live action!! The 'boing boinging' in harness, just waiting for the release, was contagious... I wanted to start running too!!

I have to admit, Sasha looked a little out of her element - but I give her (and you) big props for getting out there and trying your paws at a new sport. Bravo!

~Natalya

Congrats on the weight pulling success! I used to seriously compete with my boy Poe in weight pulling. Actually used to be an IWPA judge as well. Poe was a regional bronze medalist in the IWPA and placed 10th and the International Championships (against all the pits <vbg>. This site has an old pic of him pulling at the championships:

http://www.geocities.com/ingridnbuck/Poe_Man.html

And here is a close-up of him training for the championships:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1403/1156094776_215ab10cde.jpg

And lastly my dearly departed Finn with his high percentage ribbon and class placements:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1226/1155243195_37849fa43a_o.jpg

Finn was the first ACD (and only to date) to get the UKC weight pulling Championship title.

Poe's best pull was 2400 pounds (wheels on carpet) which was 48 times his weight. While he titled on snow he was not very good at it because he liked to bark for a few seconds before pulling and by the time he got down to business he had to break the sled from the track due to it freezing ;-)

Just be careful and use common sense. Weight pullers are fond (or used to be at least) of saying that there is little to no danger of injury in weight pulling since your dog will just stop pulling when it gets too heavy. Well, Poe partially tore both his supraspinetus tendons (rotator cuffs) due to his heart and competitive spirit. I always figured he would tell me when it was too heavy - wrong. He literally tore his shoulder muscles out trying to please me and I have to live with that knowledge to this day.

While the vets said I could pull Poe again I choose not to. I entered him at a few pulls just because he loved the sport and I would pull him from competition once he had to lean into the harness but that just pissed him off so I pulled him completely from competitions. My biggest regret is that of all the ACDs that deserved to be the first to acquire the UWPCH title, Poe is the one that really deserved it but a title is just something that humans can brag about and his health was/is worth so much more to me.

Weight pulling can be a really fantastic sport to do with your dogs and I still dabble in UKC weight pulling but am no longer out to win the big prizes and I always call my dog's run long before it gets really heavy. Not saying not to do the sport, just learn from my mistakes....

Now these are *WORKING* dogs!!!


This is so cool....my only question is, of course.......what's all that white stuff on the ground?

It's confectioners' sugar, Will.

Geoff, that is GREAT! Thanks for posting the pics!

 Quote: natalya zahn

Great pics Geoff!! Loved the whole album (and especially the "head honcho and his hat"! :grin.

I have to admit, Sasha looked a little out of her element - but I give her (and you) big props for getting out there and trying your paws at a new sport. Bravo!

Yes ... That Sir 'Furemhat' my daughter couldn't figure out what was more bushy the hat or his handlebar moustache!!

Sasha was out of sorts for sure, it was funny if you've ever been around 'real' northern breeds they are NUTS. Obedience is not a strong suit they are happy dogs that just want to run. I saw a few dog fights that day so I wasn't taking any chances. Also a few knocked over spectators and handlers dragged over snowbanks (not on sleds either). My daughter was shocked that the dogs were so rude considered to Sasha. Sasha will do anything to please me, Northern breeds just want to run or fight another dog. Big differance! So I couldn't blame her for being a little leery.

I did a little obedience and bitework routine with a Bite tug in the afternoon and the mushers in attendance were swooning over her. Asking if I was a "professional trainers etc" It was good for the ego. I wonder what they would've thought if I had brought up a few of the other advanced FRIII dogs from the French Ring club and shown their obedience routines!

 Quote: Will Rambeau

This is so cool....my only question is, of course.......what's all that white stuff on the ground?

Well I'll tell yeah Will .. next Feb or March we trade off events I'll go down to one of your club seminars but you'll have to come up here and I'll show you how much fun the white stuff on the ground can be!

 Quote: geoff empey

Northern breeds just want to run or fight another dog.

Sorry ,, This statement is misleading of the modern racing dogs. Any dog in drive can get aggro or have scuffles with other dogs in close quarters. The obedience of a Northern Racing dog is a whole different skill set as well than say a Mondio or Shutzhund dog. They need to be able to respond to directional commands from the musher who would be at a distance at the back of the sled and work in unison with the other dogs on the team. It may or may not transfer over to on leash manners but they don't need on leash manners to run a race in the bush. They also do high speed head on passes with other teams on bush trials so my statement of "fight another dog" is wrong. That requires an obedient team and a strong musher to keep the whole ship afloat in the face of a huge distraction like that.

Northern dogs Rock!!

Great pictures, great event

Were there a lot of dogs that had never been weight pull trained before? I'm assuming Sasha hadn't done it before except with the scooter, and yet she pulled that amount of weight. BIG wow!

The pic of the lady holding that puppy, good grief, wasn't she freezing?? She had a very light sweat shirt on, very light...I just had to comment, it's unbelievable actually!

I'm glad Ingrid gave information/input - sounds like something to be careful about, to never underestimate the heart of a dog. BTW, Ingrid, I enjoyed your pictures. Very cool things that you do and did with your dogs. I love seeing that stuff.

What blows my mind is how much these dogs can pull, really amazing, I'm blown away cause I had no clue.