I've done that with my dogs at wintertime mostly. Good harness is important. I start with a tyre and the put some load on it. My old dogs pulled me to the groceries and back threesome in a sled, 8 kms alltogether. And fast And I have to admit, sometimes we were all in the sled foursome...
It is very good for your dog, if you just start carefully and harnesses are ok. If the weight comes to dogs shoulders and harness tightens up over them, that's not good. If you use huskyharness (X-harness) remember that collarpart must be small enough to adjust the stress around neck and on chest, not on shoulders
Jenni
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Coffee and love are something you just can't warm up again.
In Holland it is forbidden. The Berner Sennen club tried to start something like this but they did not get permission. So the owly breeds that are allowed to pul anything in Holland are sleddog breeds like Husky's with every other breed you risk a fine.
Well i meant only in a way to add to your training program. Apart from just training and walking the dog I like to add something to condition him and prepare him for training. Like all athlets do. At the moment I only add like walking him with bicycle/horse or ocassional trip to the montains but that mostly aerobic exercizes. I read weight pulling (done properly and slowly) its good for developing mucles and improving the stamina.
maja
« Last Edit: December 29, 2004, 08:42:55 PM by Maja »
In Belgium it is forbidden to do this with dogs other than sled dogs and sennendogs. In theory it is even forbidden to take your dog running besides the bike. You are not allowed to tie your dog to a bike because the opinion of some people is that the dog canot stop even if he is tired and you are not allowed to take your dog to a public place (streets, parcs, forests etc) without a leash.
Even if it would be allowed to pull weight, where I live there is little place to do it.
Saskia
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He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.
Saskia- But you don't neccesarily need to bind your dog to a bike when going cycling. I never do that even I would have my dogs leashed when going cycling. I always hold their leashes in other hand and driving with the other one, and thereby I'm able to let them go free whenever I need to.
But I must admit like Maja -I'm surprised to hear all that about Belgium and Holland
Hello from the USA where competitive weight pulling is legal and my Belgian LOVES it! Before anyone passes judgement, it is a completely hands-off sport, the dogs pull because they want to (I am sure that there are people that are very competitive that do compulsion training, but the group that I compete with are all motivational pullers and the dogs pull because they WANT to, not because we are making them).
There are several organizations which sponsore all-breed weight pulling...the International Weight Pull Association is where my first two Tervs titled on both snow and wheel pulls. My current boy pulls with the United Kennel Club and is the first and only Belgian to date to have earned his UWPCH (United Weight Pull Champion) and is well on his way to earning his UWPCHX which is one of the highest levels in the sport.
I only pull what I need to win the catagory that he is competing in (where you earn points toward your titles) and to date, the most weight he has pulled is 1960 pounds (890.0kg) in under 11 seconds with tail wagging the entire way (they pull that a distance of 30 feet (~9 metres?). He can easily pull much more, but as he is a working dog and has the heart and drive to try even if it is more than he is capable of, don't want to take the chance of him spraining/straining anything when there is no need to pull anything more.
This dog is also a working Search and Rescue dog and the conditioning that the weight pulling has given him is phenomenal. He is very toned and his musculature is phenomenal without affecting his gait for conformation showing. For aerobic activity he plays frisbee (30 minutes of sprints) and we walk 5km every other day. This dog also LOVES skijouring/sledding as well. The day he doesn't leap straight up when seeing his harness with tail wagging and howling in anticipation, is the day he no longer has to pull.
The only problem with allowing him to pull when attached to sled, me on skiis or a cart is the fact that when we are tracking, he plows ahead full speed, which on slippery hills is NOT good
Author
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And I have to admit, sometimes we were all in the sled foursome... 
