Weight Pull Weekend

This is our first trial on rails. It's easier to start and pull, so the weight percentage is much higher. Gimme has to pull 26 times her own weight for 10 points - more than twice as much as she's pulled before.

Weight Pull Day 1

505# video - I caused a fault on Gimme's first run. First I took my hands off her and then put them back on her, then during the run she caught up and touched me, so we had to do it again. I also got perilously close to having the hookup come off the ground. It was an easy weight and Gimme had fun, finishing in 6.38 seconds.

665-1145# video - This video has four pulls: 665# in 4.94 seconds, 825# in 5.66 seconds, 985# in 5.66 seconds, and 1145# in 6.53 seconds. All easy peasy.

1305# video - This is the first time Gimme went off the rails. I encouraged her to get back on and keep pulling. Apparently it's okay if she wants to pull from beside the track. The judge suggested that I not try to get her back on because she could lose momentum and then not be willing to restart the cart, which is the hardest part. Even with all this, she did it in 11.34 seconds.

1385# video - Gimme again goes off the rails and this time I just encouraged her to keep moving forward. She did it in 13.04 seconds, for first place and 10 points toward her weight pull CH.

Weight Pull Day 2

Since Gimme did the early pulls on the first day so easily, we started her at the same weight as her fourth pull from the day before. All the other dogs in our division stopped at lower weights, so Gimme's four pulls were without a break in between.

Also, they added another section of rails so handlers could move more naturally without worrying about falling off the end. They felt the handler's unnatural movement might affect the dogs' performance. I didn't notice any difference for Gimme, but it was nice to not worry about backing off the edge of the world.

There's no video for the first pull, which is just as well since I brought Gimme to the start with the harness on upside down. Clearly I need a harness marked with "top". She seemed a little surprised to find the first pull so heavy, but she still pulled it in 8.72 seconds.

1145# video - Gimme did all her pulls this day from the side of the track. I talked to Corey, the back-up judge about it and he thought she may be doing it when she's frustrated. He also suggested I could be further away from her. She still pulled it in 13.5 seconds.

1305# video - Gimme just didn't really get a good pull going on this load and so I had them push it to start it so she could end well, which was a fault for the run. I notice in the video I started by walking away from her, instead of backing away as I normally do. On the second try she did fine, pulling it in 9.97 seconds. I also see in the first pull I was much farther from her than usual and in the second pull I stayed closer.

1385# video - Someone had a dog a little close and within line of sight and the judge made them move before she let us start. I don't think Gimme had noticed, but I appreciate the judge's thoughtfulness in making sure we had a good pull. This pull was the one we needed to get to 10 points toward her weight pull CH. The time was 33.4 seconds, but she did it.

Honestly, this was all a lot of physical work in the space of ten minutes. Gimme did a great job and I'm so proud of her.

Both of the last two pulls, the one after the faulted run and the final one, Gimme needed a lot of reassurance in the form of hugs and kisses. It occurs to me now, she wasn't getting a chance to go back to our setup chair where the peanut butter and marshmallows were waiting, so hugs, kisses and my appreciation was all the reward she was getting. I gave her a lot of peanut butter and marshmallows at the end, but I'm betting she thought I was seriously falling down on my part of this whole experience. This likely contributed to her time out fault. I don't know how to change this, since the treats can't be stashed beyond the startline. Of course in larger trials, there have always been other competitors pulling similar weights, so we had time to go back to our setup chair.

This gives us 50 points, so we are halfway to her weight pull championship.

Valerie was there on the second day. She's the person who ran the workshops we went to. She was just thrilled with how well Gimme is doing. I was telling her I thought we'd stop with a UWPCH, because I'd done the math and it just didn't seem feasible to spend $500 on the next level title (based on her current 10 points per trial). She's certain Gimme could pull enough for 20 points with training. Unfortunately I'd have to get a harness, which would negate any savings. Valerie offered to loan me one of her extra harnesses for as long as I needed. Talk about nice!

Later I was talking to Angela Bruner, the trial host, about how to train Gimme and condition her. She's been bringing an extra harness to the trials we enter so Gimme can pull. I do have to say weight pull people are so nice and supportive. I've yet to meet someone who wasn't. Some of the new people are a bit clueless about their dog's behavior, but over all they've been super.

Anyway, Angela explained so much about training. One thing she said was that it's not about conditioning her body to make her stronger; instead it's about conditioning her mind to know she can do it. She thinks Gimme could pull enough for 25 points right now, if she believed she could do it. I told her about Val's generous offer and she told me to just take the harness I'd been using for the weekend and keep it as long as I like. Again, just nice people.

So we'll be pulling in the park and other places, as soon as I get some old heavy rusty stuff collected.  Gimme will love it - she just likes having stuff to do.