Basic Weight Pull Tips
* text and photos by Darlu Littledeer
* First you need a dog that appears willing and trainable, a dog in
good physical shape.
* You need a weight pull harness. This harness directs the weight lower
on the dog than a racing type harness and generally offers much more padding
around the neck and chest area. Usually it has a spreader bar in the rear,
which keeps the weight evenly distributed from the back of the dog.
Here's Bok wearing his weight pull harness for sled work.
If you look at the red inverted "V"
you can see how
this type harness places the weight much lower
than the top of the back,
which is where a tradtional sled-type
harness will place weight. The dog next to Bok
is wearing an x-back harness and the weight
is centered along the top of the back(see green "V").
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Beginning weight pull training: What I did to begin was to put the harness
on Bok and attach him to a medium sized sedan type tire(as opposed to
something like a truck tire).
When I lived where I had no electricity I simply wound a bunch of baling
wire around and around from the center to the edge of a tire, making a heavy
loop of wire which I secured to itself. Then I clipped a carabiner with
8' length of line attached to it through the wire loop. The other end of the
8' carabiner line had another carabiner on it and I attached this to the loop
on the spreader bar at the back of the harness.
When I lived where I had electricity and could use my drill, I drilled a hole
through the wall of the tire and threaded an eye bolt through the hole with
a large washer and a nut on the inside tire wall to secure the bolt. The eye
of the bolt then on the outside of the tire, I could snap my carabiner in,
same carabiner with the long line attached and the carabiner at the other
end to snap into the loop of the harness.
Then Bok and I would go for a walk. I lived on gravel and dirt roads. We
started out going about 1/4 mile and worked from that to going about a mile.
It was just a regular walk and I didn't make it into anything else. Just a
fun walk, except Bok was pulling this tire in harness this time.
After it looked like Bok was comfortable pulling the tire we worked on the
obedience part. After the walk we'd stop near home, I'd line Bok out and set
him so the line from the back of the harness to the tire would be tight and
he would feel the tightness. I'd then put him in a stand stay with my open
palm toward him and I'd walk out about 15 feet. Then I'd call him...
"Bok, come." And he'd come to me, pulling the tire.
This is all I ever did to train Bok for weight pull. He earned his WDX in
four consecutive pulls, with two 800 pound pulls and two pulls over 1000 pounds.
I'd think if you wanted to go into weight pull further, wanted to compete on
a regular basis you could increase the size of the tire in practice or you
could work more increments - pulling the smaller tire a number of times.
You also might want to work on pulling the tire a certain distance - like
25 feet or so - to make sure the dog knows it must pull until it is time to stop.
You also might want to purchase a weight pull harness with more padding.
Here's Bok pulling 1065 lbs.
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