Hi, I am new to this forum. I am hoping that someone will be able to guide me in the right direction. I have a 14 month old large female purebred american bulldog. I understand that she is not fully grown yet but she is quite large for a female already. I have had her since she was 7 weeks old so I know for sure what her age is. These are her dimensions: Weight 85 lbs Head: 21" Neck: 20" Height from whithers: 23" Length from base of neck to start of tail: 24" Chest: 12" width I am wondering if anyone knows how old would be appropriate to start getting her into the sport and if there are any recommendations as to preference in harness and techniques to start her with? I have attached a pic of my princess.... yes she was dressed up for halloween in this pic
The younger you start can be the better but I had some which didn't start until adulthood but they really had it in them and did fine. Which organization do you plan on pulling with? That can make a difference for training.
She's gorgeous I'd wait until she is an adult too - about two years of age, males about 2 n a half imo.
I have no idea about weight-pulling but your "princess" looks lovely in her Halloween costume! and Pereg and I would like to welcome you to Breedia.
Yes plenty old enough, you want a dedicated X-back draft harness. You shouldn't have too much trouble tracking these down although a lot are made to order. Naturally you bring them along by just baiting them to pull a light or empty sled and work from there.
I am just doing my research now as I am not sure in Canada which is the best to go with or where to start. Any suggestions??
Thank you all for the welcome. Her name is "Lecka" it is Africaans for " Good or Nice" she lives up to her name for sure. She is my special baby girl.
Check out CD Pit, Cindy makes some great harnesses. Not sure how close you might be but they can be shipped which is very common. Is your girl registered? My girl at 5 and a half months old. This is what the harness should look like. Tried to put a video don't think I did it right.
Is she an American or a pitty?? She's pretty. Yes Lecka is in the process of being registered with MIRA (Molossar International Registry) as a foundation dog. Her parents are purebred, father a 150Lb Johnson and her mother is a 90lb hybrid Johnson/Scott but they were not ABA dogs so the lineage cannot be proven. ABA has done some physical characteristic matches on Lecka and told have informed me that they will accept her in MIRA as a foundation dog. This way a can register any puppies with a registered sire should I wish to breed her. Lecka is already thicker than her mother and has more of a boxy head. Probably because her fathers side being full plantation Johnson. She will likely be about 95 lbs the vet says.
Bulldogs4lfe and Mr.Bulldog as to when to start and such with bully breeds as they know the breed and when it matures better than me with plate closing and such. Tho I would asked Bulldogs4life at 5 1/2 month is that just training or with weight pulling? Just seems a bit young with weight, as I know at that age plates have not closed. I know currently I'm looking at IWPA pulling, but currently it's just training with no weight added, Mouse will not complete until after 18 months, but he is a different breed than bullies.
OK here is the video I hope it actually works. I think of you click on it then it will load. She's a Pit. and thanks. Your girl is a looker herself. Do you have a pedigree for her? You could look into ADBA registration with a 3 generation if you have the MIRA registration. You can also do IWPA as LMost mentioned. It is open to all breeds or mixes too. My dogs are much smaller, the largest I had & pulled was 53lbs conditioned. I owned one Am Bulldog but years ago. She was a big gal though not as big as your girl probably will be it was certainly a considerable dinference for me compared to my 25-35lbs. Am Bulldogs are large & do mature later compared to Pits. As for mine she is pulling an empty sled. She is working against gravity because it's on a hill. It is training as they are not allowed to compete so young.
Virtually all clubs wont let a dog pull under the age of 12 months although this is still early to be pulling in earnest with larger breeds. You can get the dogs used to the rig and the act of pulling itself as soon as they can wear it. Often it pays to do this early as some dogs can be wary of the sled at first, so in some ways OP is a latecomer 150lbs is a hell of a lot of Bulldog by modern standards even for 100% JDJ, the trend nowdays is very much towards a tighter more compact dog topping at around the 110 - 120 mark, no rough idea of the blood you have?
