Thread: My Dog Basil

This is Basil my American pit bull terrier at a weight pulling competition:

Beautiful dog. I love working dogs

LIMIT

Man -- that's a hell of a photo there.

Will a pit bull naturally want to pull a cart or do you have to train them?


Justin

Originally Posted by jaegerhund

Man -- that's a hell of a photo there.

Will a pit bull naturally want to pull a cart or do you have to train them?


Justin

I suspect you have to give them enough incentive at the other end...like a raw steak... or a bitch in heat!

Thanks!

Basil is a special dog. In that photo he is pulling his personal best of 2100 lbs. His posture is perfect. I train him by having him drag a tire up a small mountain but the first time he had a harness on, he seemed to know what I wanted. He pulled one full season (2006-2007) in the IWPA (International Weight Pulling Association) and earned enough points to get invited to the world championships. We flew out to Colorado and Basil finished fourth in his weight class on snow (he got disqualified on wheels). Not bad, fourth in the world his first year competing.

Some folks say weight pulling is cruel to the dogs. You folks look at the picture. Does Basil appear to be under any duress? The rules prohibit the use of any bait of any kind and no bitches "in season" can even be present in a car at a pull. You hook your dog to the cart and step across the finish before the dog can pull. Then you can only call him. You can't touch him or offer him any food or toys. Basically the dog is doing it because he wants to. Sometimes the pull, sometimes they don't. Basil for example, tries to get under the cart if it's raining. I just laugh because it's not that important to me. I know he does his best for me and I can't ask for more than that. However, it's alot like little league. Some handlers scream and yell at their dogs if they don't want to work. I never yell at Basil when he doesn't win. I want him to really enjoy the experience. If he doesn't have fun, I feel that I must have failed.

Whoa! 2100 pounds Beautiful dog!

James.

And he's a snappy dresser:

But he can't sing worth a crap:

Ahh, but can he go two years without looking at your garden, and then the day after you spend a lot of time and money putting in an irrigation system, dig it up and chew half of it to smithereens? Until he can do that, I'm afraid he'll never beat my dog


(Those two photos had me in stitches, btw!)

James.

Oh Jimbo you have a canine clown eh?

Basil can also fly:

And even though he's been neutered, he has really big balls:

And they say pits are bad dogs --- the sweetest dogs I've ever met were pit bulls ---- but they can give you a look like no other dog. It's not an over aggressive look but a calm look that says if I need to I can tear you apart- ---- put a chill down your spine.

As far as doggy torture --- some dogs are only happy if they are doing what they were bred to do and your pup is probably having the time of his life there and no harm is being done ---- and such dogs need to exert themselves to get that energy out of their system.

Justin