We attended a seminar on weight pull for both Sunday and Monday. On Sunday there were so many clueless people, so we weren't able to do as much. It was just too chaotic and I felt like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs trying to keep my eyes on everyone.
First we got her fitted in a harness and while it fit her body great, the spreader bar was too close, so it was bumping her back legs. Gimme didn’t like this style of harness, since it had padding which made it fit her face really close and she had to push her head through. Of course peanut butter was sufficient encouragement for her to push through. Gimme pulled drag weights, which was easy, but the point of them isn’t about weight, its about getting the dog used to something following them and making noise behind them. We also pulled the cart, but there wasn’t much weight on it and I thought Gimme was a little bored by it. The good news was that it lifted the spreader bar up so it wasn’t bumping her legs as much.
On Monday there were only a few participants, so Valerie said we should work Gimme again. We pulled the sledge with all the weights they have. Probably only 150 pounds, but it drags on the dirt, so it is effectively heavier. Then we hooked her on the cart and loaded it up and pulled it back and forth. The video I have is our last pull where she was pulling a 75 pound cart with a 140 pound girl on it, who is dragging her feet (adding about 50 pounds more in load). Gimme found this more worthwhile. Its not as easy as it looks because the dirt was not flat… it had shallow vehicles tracks pressed in the dirt. Valerie positioned the cart for the start so the wheels were on top of the rise between the tracks and had the girl give a little push to help Gimme get it started.
You’ll notice her tail really never stops wagging. She clearly thinks this is too too much fun.
As soon as we can get a properly fitted harness made for her, we’ll start training her in the neighborhood. Valerie is very picky about harness fit and quality, so I’m going to wait until she lets me know a good place to get it made.
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