Bull Breed Forum

real nice to see 2 people of oposing views, i respect both opionions , but i have to agree with Mark on this one..! although Leigh had some very good points , We Baited our Beau in the Iron dog event .. worked on a collar , cos syhe got tied up in the harness the first pull . & we baited her in a controled manor ,,, very low to the ground & about 2 foot in front of her .. so No chomping & biting .. very smooth .....

Come on guys and girls there must be more people with opinions on this .

It's positive to see that more people have voted for harness unbaited but some comments to back this up would be nice too.

Cheers

Leigh

the little bitch i have here would not pull without bait, she is quite a wise headed dog and knows if she does not work then she will be teased with bait and she plays to it, having said that i am no fan of weightpulls full stop, i just do not get the fuss, i never use weights when working a dog so have no use for it ,so am probably not the one to ask in this debate.

I have chosen to reinstate this section.. so this topic is now open once more! However the all the polls have been reset during recovery.... feel free to vote.

My opinion on the matter need not to be said, however I'll say it anyway; I don't like baiting a dog to pull because, I've noticed what with high drive dogs they tend not to pull as smoothly, plus you can't take part in sanctioned weight pull, if using bait... but that's just my opinion

Looking forward to seeing others... again folks keep it clean..

~John~

Nice to see a good few people have voted so far (polls were set to zero when reinstated) just wondering why no one has commented?

Not really sure if my comment is valid as i have only ever followed this on the internet {youtube} and talking to people on other boards in other countries who do it because it interests me, but i will just give my opinion, firstly many vets will tell you that it is a bad idea for dogs to have too much strain put on there neck as this would cause infections and breathing issues ect i have been told that the harnesses are specially made for dogs to pull weights on if pulling on collar was ok then everyone would pull on collars? secondly baiting {now correct me if i'm wrong} is where the owner/handler encourage a dog to pull using some kind of incentive ie a toy, food ect again i can only form this opinion from what i have seen on the internet but in these times where the bully breeds are under fire from every hater in the world surely it would look a whole lot better to the public {it would to me} if the owners trained their dogs to pull without a lure? after all you don't see people in them strength contests being teased forward with £££ notes to pull them big trucks lol however this is just one persons opinion Keith

I voted harness,unbaited,my reasons are that I am a firm believer in the harnessess specially designed to spread the weight making this easier on the dog,also I want the dog to pull for the love of pulling. Just generally looks more professional too i think,its more of a challenge for you and the dog having to train rather than getting something you know the dog will chase,just my opinions though,think no less of someone who wants to bait,your dog your methods

When I first saw the weight pull event, having never seen anything like it before. Seeing how some of the dogs pull I can really see why so many people are "anti" weight pull, as watching a dog strangle itself on its collar to get its toy to me not a sport.

I would have thought for the interests of people looking at the pictures etc (with little knowlege of the sport), that it would look better seeing the dogs pulling as the owner requested rather than showing how determined they could be to get their prize. I have had some spare time and have been watching a few animal programmes on TV recently and have seen baited weight pulls (and several other of "our" sports) shown as this is how they train the dogs to be fit to fight.

So I decided to go with not baiting and pull on a harness only, I have tried Java once without a collar just to see why people do it. I can see why they may pull on a collar, but for me to make it a true sport it should be on a harness and without bait. Both to encorage the dog to "work" for the work for the owner rather than just its toy, and to ensure the dog's health is considered. Otherwise it just seems like they are taking advantage of the dogs prey drive with out thinking about the dog.

I know for most dogs doing the A-frame means using a flirtpole, but I have also trained my dogs to jump the A frame on command. Last time I did A frame i got Biffas best score just asking her to jump, but the others will all jump for the lure.

Bob & SLC -

You pretty much took the words out of my mouth, with that one................. I've been told by a few that "we all bait for lure racing, a frame ect.." and yes indeed I do bait for those mentioned disiplines, however when they are doing the above mentioned disiplines they are NOT teathered/tied to anything, to me its tantamount to teasing/agitating a dog at the end of a chain, which I find wrong really, I'm afraid to say! I find it more pleasing to watch a dog pull to please their owner and get made a fuss of because in my opinion the dogs don't recognise the fuss they get made of when baited, now contrary to popular belief, the sanctioned events do allow clapping and cheering... but only after the judge calls a pull, note the look on the dogs face when they hear that word from the judge "pull" shortly followed by clapping, I truely believe the dog is pleased with his/herself.... a great buzz for dog and handler

Again just my opinion...


~John~

ps. Well done to you for getting Biffa to do A frame unbaited, I done Long jump with Maisey unbaited in Ireland, she done six foot

voted on harness baited would be wrong for me to go any other way because thats how we have done most pulls except when murphy gor his wp1,2 &3

as i posted before suprised to see the gap between baited and un baited when 90% of people bait the dogs at all the events except the sanctioned pulls also i still think its a fine line between using a lure or being on all 4s in front of the dog coaxing it to pull , efectivley the owner is the lure. for me on command is what it says on the tin get the dog in position walk to the end and call the dog to pull .

dont get me wrong the way forward is on a harness and on command especially when the likes of the rspca or even joe public are on lookers im sure the rspca tried to put a stop to weight pulling a few yrs back

incidently a couple of yrs back did honour on the a frame without a lure she got 36 overs in 1 min her normal score was 42