might be a weight puller

well yesterday i took Tigre ( my pitbull ) for a walk and well he pulls me everywhere. well anyways after we ate thanksgiving dinner and when it got cooler we took a wagon ( one for babies and u can buy at walmart ) and he pulled that ( he doesnt have a harness but a really thick coller the wide collers ) and well i wanted to see if he could pull my nephew ( hes 13 ) in the wagon and he weighs around 70... i think, and tigre pulled him so easy! im thinking of getting him a weight pulling harness when we go buy a petsmart or somewhere like that in flagstaff... what do you all think about that?

Weight pulling is awesome! I used to do weight pull with my rott/husky, and he loved it.

First of all, how old is Tigre? If I remember right, he's still a pup. Weight pull is not something an immature dog should do. They could really hurt themselves. You can teach him how to pull on command, but use extremely light weight.

An inexpensive harness should be just fine for the initial training. But once Tigre grows up, if you want to really get into heavy weight pulling, there are special weight-pull harnesses to use. They make it safer and easier for the dog when pulling.

tigre is going to be 7 months and yea im going to not get an expensive harness cause he is still growning. ive been teaching him since he was 4-5 months to have a harness and stuff on his back and he does great but i left the harness outside one day and rocky and tigre desided to play tug a war and tair it up lol

You Will NOT find a weight pull harness at a petco, try www.iwpa.net, they are the best Weight pulling club worldwide!

Pits are generally Excellent at weight pull, I do weight pull with my Beaucerons, and one of my Bernese Mountain Dogs.

Also wait untill he is a year to do any pulling of any weight over about 25 lbs.

Please please please never use a collar again for pulling!!!!! Especially weight pulling!!!!!! Especially since Tigre's still a puppy!!!!! Yes it may be a wide collar BUT it's still pressure on the NECK instead of on the chest!!! That is simply the perfect way to severely injure your dog!

Now that I got that out of my system, make sure you select a harness very carefully. It has to be fitted properly so that the pressure points are at the right spots. Also you must gradually build up the weight. Start small and easy (even though you know your dog can pull more wight with ease, beginning at his max could injure him because he neds to build up the muscles for pulling - it'd be like getting a novice runner to sprint 500meters every day without warm-ups) and gradually build up.

Good luck!

If you are interested, you can get wagons, carts, and specially designed harnesses, etc. for pulling (as well as see some great photos of BMDs and others) here:

http://www.wilczekwoodworks.com

Also, if your dog is still growing, it should not be pulling any weight. You can get training harnesses for growing pups that are adjustable, but again, no pulling weight until they are done growing.

I have a Rottie/Staffie cross pup and an English Mastiff/Dogue de Bordeaux pup. Does that mean i would need to wait until the rott/staff is about 18 months and the mastiff is about 3 years old before they could pull weight because that is about when i expect them to stop growing?

Yup. You have to wait until they're full mature. If not, you can cause a lot of bone/joint damage. But you can start training them to the harness at an earlier age, and get them used to pulling something VERY light behind them.

Ok. Thanks for the advice!