Pitbull Muscle Building
what is an appropriate age to start weight pull training for my pitbull?
he's still a 5 month puppy right now but i wanted to know the best age to start training him to build up his muscle and stamina.
1. Don't start any jumping activities (for agility for instance) or weight pulling activities (for your sport) until the growth plates have closed. As a general rule of thumb, that is at about 1 year of age for the majority of dogs. To be sure, you could go to a vet for a checkup and have x-rays done to confirm.
2. You'll want to get your dog on a performance dog food (high protein: 40%, high fat: 20%) but NOT while they're still a puppy and growing. So absolutely nothing like this before 8-9 months.
3. There is a lot of conditioning and preparation you can do before actually getting into actual weight training though. Here are some ideas:
--Get your dog jazzed about getting into his pulling harness. Develop a routine (physical and verbal). "Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready?". Put the harness on and get excited and treat. Your dog, even as a puppy starts to associate the harness with "good times--times to get excited and get revved up!".
--There are a lot of physical things you can do that don't involve pulling weights. Walking is mandatory. Swimming is a great form of cross-training. Get used to warming your dog up (like a great athlete). Make obedience as much of a workout as possible (put two people 40 yards apart and take turns calling your dog and then treating so your dog is sprinting from one person to another). Interval training (slow jog, sprinting, slow job, sprinting) is a good form of cross-training.
--Work on building your dog's drive. You want a high drive dog to be successful at performance sports. Find out what motivates him the most (from low value to high value treats, is it food or toys?). Race him to a toy. Always end any training session with you on a high note and a treat, give him a chance to experience lots of success--all of these things help build drive.
--Work on focus. There will be a lot of distraction at some weight pulls...other dogs barking, people calling out encouragement or the dog's name. A dog that is easily distracted will lose out. You can do lots of things: the doggie zen game (check out Shirley Chong's website at www.shirleychong.com). Use rope toys to work at tugging games. Get your dog into a sit-stay or down-stay and then proof it (by providing distractions...food by the side, a friend tossing a ball) and make sure your dog is focused just on you.
--Work on building muscles. No, not by pulling weights. Ball work (go to www.cleanrun.com), where you put the dog on a ball and then you provide resistance against one muscle or another. It provides the begining of muscle development without stressing the skeletal structure of a growing puppy.
--Read up. Get Chris Zink's new book on performance dogs. She what she says about diet, development, and training.
--Take your dog to a weight pull or two to socialize him, get him used to the environment. In fact, socialization is critical for success at these things. If your dog is distracted or stressed by lots of strange dogs that it won't perform well at the weight pull. So it's critical for you to work on manners and comfort level around other dogs otherwise your dog won't be able to compete.
But do NOT hook up some weights or a wagon to your puppy and ask him to pull. You'll learn bad technique, he'll run the risk of hurting himself and it won't help in any way. And do NOT get into supplements or additives right now. You run the risk of a dog building his muscles faster than his skeletal structure develops which leads to injuries.
Finally, for those who posted that this is about dog fighting...that's a very uninformed response. Weight pulls are both a formal and informal sport. Pit bulls compete in this a lot (though the best results I've seen came from an Irish Wolfhound and some Malamutes in terms of total weight and the best proportional results--weight to size--were done by terriers and a beagle). There are formal organizations for this that are legitimate. It's a dog performance activity just like agility, rally-o, flyball, fieldwork, earthdog, or herding. It helps give a pet dog a job, provides focus and mental stimulation.
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