Weight Pulling
My first time organizing a weightpull, and it was a success! Of course, working with Missy & Dave make it that way. They supply the cart, the chute and Missy judges. I secured the venue, make sure we've got weights and do the paperwork. Great team work. We'd like to get more people in the region to organize a pull, cooridinating with Missy & Dave.
Friday night we setup the chute in the pouring rain at Orchard Hills, where we train for agility. We used their hard packed dirt drive. We were hoping the rain would stop for Saturday, but we could see that the drive was draining quickly.
Saturday started out sunny, warm and humid. We swept the excess gravel from the chute, and we were ready to roll with weigh-ins.
We had a huge novice class that pulled together - 16 dogs. Another 4 novices pulled in regular classes. Based on the excitement, I'd say that alot of them are hooked! Some of my agility classmates pulled, and Bev, the owner of the venue, pulled two of her GSDs who were both naturals. She never used the leash on them.
We had itty-bitty dogs in the 20# class (Sheltie, Norfolk Terrier) all the way up to my big boy, Sebastian.
I had an incredible surprise when David Gallagher showed up with a bunch of dogs. They kept it a surprise and came to help make sure we had a good turnout. I love you guys!! Then another surprise when Steve Jackson & family came with their Alaskan Huskies and malamute and I got to see the famous Starbuck pull in person.
We had about 35 dogs pulling pro. Based on phone calls and emails I was expecting more, but think the threat of rain kept some away. Dave tells me this was a great turnout, and with novice we had more than 50 dogs pull!
The day was long and hot/humid, but thankfully we got cloud cover which kept it bearable.
Here's the famous Starbuck, who's got a hit-hit-hit style, which David tells me is perfect for snow where he absolutely excels
We used pavers for weights, so no super spectacular photos because the weights are thin unlike concrete blocks.
Here's David & Sue's Takani - pulled 2580 (33.50%):
Here's Hemi - pulled 2700 (37.50%)
Here's Missy's Homer, her rescue mal - pulled 2220 (25.81%) - his first pull was just weeks ago - he's doing great:
Here's Missy & Dave's Buell - she's really Dave's dog, you have to hear her when he's pulling another dog, so jealous - she was found wandering the streets after Katrina and never claimed - now she's got a great home with them - she pulled 2940 (40.83%)
Here's Cassi - what a girl! - I so badly wanted Cinnabar to pull higher than her, but not quite :) - this little girl pulled 3060 and got best body percentage with 46.36 times her weight!!!!
Here's Ranger - he went in another head-to-head with Harley and won again - pulled top weight at 3660 (41.12%)
Now my guys. For Sebastian, it really wasn't Dr. Jeckyl/ Mr. Hyde this time. He was hot (hosed him down, but he was still hot), tired and even though he was shaded as a black dog he just was not into it. Even from the get go he was just plugging along - I couldn't get him excited. Not even jealousy worked. He pulled 1020.
I was able to get his interest and focus on his last pull by almost doing a jig and stamping my feet at the finish line. Alas that was not enough for him to pull the darn thing :)
Cinnabar did not disappoint me in the chute. He's still not crazy about going into the chute and needs to be coaxed. Once in there he's all business.
He pulled 2940 (26.72%) - his personal best! Although, I'd liked to have gotten him over the 3000 mark , he did not wag his tail while I was holding his head to mine in the chute in the last pull, so I knew it would be his last pull, but look at the effort in the fading light of the day:
Wow, what a day! We had great cart help, a great food vendor, Banner's mom was there as a natural dog food vendor, Missy & Dave vended, extremely excited novice dog people, great dogs, great people! Everyone left pitched in to break things down and make sure we left the site clean. I can't thank everyone enough for making it such a great day.
I've got over 230 photos to get online by the end of the week, I believe I got all the dogs that pulled. Thanks to Liz for again taking photos of my boys.
Photos of all the dogs & more of Sebastian & Cinnabar
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