I’ve been absolutely awful about posting anything this year. I’ve sat down to write posts at least a dozen time, then ended up just walking away.
Looking back I realized I didn’t update with information of what I’ve been up to.
Last fall, about the time I got sick, Ranger stopped pulling when in competition. I gave him time off and restarted his training to see if that would snap him out of it. In May he was still quitting on pulls or barely even trying when I knew he was perfectly capable of pulling.
Back in June I took Ranger to the UKC Premier, where he finished his UKC Weight Pull Champion title. I made several mistakes, but he made up for them and did me proud.
This past weekend I traveled to Michigan to compete in a National Working Dog Association weight pull. I’ve never competed with this group before, but I knew many of the people there and wanted to see how Ranger would do. He completed his Weight Pull 3 (WP3) title by pulling over 23 times his body weight in the Saturday morning pull. He took 2nd place, defeating 3 dogs, in the two pulls on Saturday. On Sunday morning he again pulled over 23 times his body weight and earned his Weight Pull Champion title (WP3CH) and taking 2nd in his class of 6 dogs. In the afternoon I decided to see what he could do since he was pulling very well and he smashed his previous best pull of 1455# on wheels by pulling 2525# in 32.72 seconds. This was over 44 times his body weight and earned him 1st in his class of 6 dogs. I withdrew him from competition because even though he was still wagging his tail and happy, and probably could have made one more pull, I decided he’d done enough. He is now ranked with the NWDA and is eligible to compete in the Nationals at the end of this month. I’m not sure if I’m going to go yet, but I’d really like to.
It’s pleasing to see him turn around from refusing to pull to pulling so hard that I have to withdraw him from competition because he wants to keep working but I feel he’s worked hard enough for one day.
