Weight Pull is a wonderful low impact sport you can do with your dog. Dogs can start training at a young age and start competing at 12 months of age. The United Kennel Club (UKC) offers weight pull on four different surfaces. These surfaces are rails, snow, wheels on natural, and wheels on artificial. You don’t need to spend a ton to get started with training. An empty milk jug with some small rocks is a great starting point to get puppies use to being in harness and having something noisy behind them. Then you can upgrade to a used tire or cheap plastic snow sled or start here with an older dog. Then any outdoor surface works for training; snow, dirt, grass. Never use a wheeled cart without someone there to break the cart. The must have for this sport is a good weight pull harness. We always recommend going custom!

 

When you are just starting, we recommend reaching out to a weight pull club in your area. Most weight pull people are happy to let you borrow a harness at an event or meet up to train together. Weight pull is a great way to build a dog’s confidence, create a great working relationship with your dog, provide mental and physical stimulation simultaneously, and help build and maintain a well-conditioned dog. To learn more about weight pull, please visit here.