If Properly Condtioned,& Trained:Could A Shetland Sheepdog Do Weight Pulling?

[♥Love Herds♥]

It's A sport I am interested in getting involved, if the dog isn't a high risk of getting injured. Of course all sports have a risk of the getting injured, but does Weight Pull have a high risk of getting injured? We are planning on doing Agility, & Obedience, and possibly more.

[Justicemom]

Weight pull is not a big injury risk sport as long as the dog has proper structure and conditioning. Not a big impact sport-agility, flyball and disc are all far more likely to cause injury. But of course, like all sports they is a chance.

I have dabbled in weight pulling but have not had any time to seriously get involved. I did go to the UKC invitational in obedience one year and Rachel and I heard there was a sheltie doing weight pulling. We went over to watch -15" 20lbs Tri sheltie was pulling around 1500lbs and was right up there with the APBT and American Bullbogs. It was something to watch. We talked to his owner and he conditions the dogs by having him help out on the farm pulling hay bales. As a generally breed Shelties are not known for pulling some lines are better than others.

[3Stars]

I've been looking at getting into drafting (not sure if that's the same as weight pulling) too! I'm hoping to get a little cart this summer.

[HopeShelties]

There is a little tri factored sheltie who competed in weight pull quite successfully. He was also the first sheltie to earn a draft dog title. The dog is Dileas Star Spangled Banner. He belongs to Cheryl Butchko
I'm doing drafting (different from weight pull) with my do it all dog. I have a background in training horses to drive and showing them, and the dog has obedience/rally/agility titles, so thought it was only natural to try it. I'm gearing toward working on titling in the one venue that allows a dog to pull a certain percentage of its body weight instead of a set amount.

[labgirl]

Perhaps you can explain, how do organiser/owners ensure the dog does not pull beyond their limit and hurt themselves? That is the thing that concerns me about such sports.

I love watching Strongman competitions, so I may have the wrong idea of doggy weight-pulling! But I have visions of dogs pulling too much and hurting themselves?

[Bejilia]

What I know, is that untrained dogs are able to pull the fourfold of their own body weight, trained dogs go up to the decuple.
And I know, that shelties do every sport, if they can do it with their owner. But they also do it until they topple down. So if you want to do weight pulling, try it. But stop it, when you see, that your pup does it only for you.
Apart from that I think, the body of a sheltie is made for speed and agility, so they are more qualified for faster dog sports or dogdancing. I would do Agility and Obedience, Flyball and all the other sports seriously and the weight pulling just for fun, so there would be no pressure to perform.