Another sport that Staffords excel at!  Here's where all that natural muscle comes in handy.  In the US, the organizations to compete in weight pull with a Stafford are the IWPA, and the UKC.    The weight pull program in the UKC is fairly new, and the rules are still evolving.  Still, the sport is simple enough to understand...

put a harness on your dog, hook the dog up to a weighted cart or sled, and go!   Dogs love that chance to use their muscles.  Elmo will shriek with excitement, waiting for his turn to pull.

So far, we've only competed in UKC weight pulls, earning their basic weight pulling title, the UWP (United Weight Puller).  To earn the UWP, the dog pulls a certain multiple of their body weight at 3 separate pulls.  The amount pulled depends on what type of sled or cart is used.  Pulling a sled on snow is the most difficult, so requires the least amount of weight.  Elmo will never do that, though, too hard to pull while holding his paws off the ground! (snow is COLD!)

A wheeled cart requires a higher amount of weight pulled.  Finally, a cart on rails is easy to pull, so requires the highest amount.  10x the dog's body weight is required for a qualifying pull.

After a good 10 minutes of training, I took Elmo to his first pull, held by CAPBTC, on November 30, 2002.   He still wasn't entirely sure what I expected, but came through for me, pulling 430 pounds, 11.9x his body weight, which was 36 pounds that day. (this was apparently good for 4th place, must have only been 4 dogs in the 45# class).  First leg!  I was very pleased with him.

Our next pulls took place on February 8th & 9th, 2003, hosted by the same club.  I spent a couple weeks training before this event, so Elmo was less confused.  On the 8th, he pulled 420 pounds without noticing it.  This was 11x his body weight of 38 pounds, so I stopped there.  The weight classes have changed, so he is now in the 40# class... only 2 dogs, so he was 2nd.

On the 9th, I decided to let him pull a bit more.  He pulled 1220 pounds, 32.1x his body weight, not bad!   He had now earned his UWP!

On the 9th, Elmo & Tully's support crew (aka: Dani and Kelsey) were in attendance, so I entered Tully in the pull too.   This way, I had someone to hold a dog and help me switch the harness (I only have one right now).

Tully is a fantastic little puller, and enjoys it while she's doing it, but disapproves of it being my idea.  Tough!  A dog who pulls like a diesel on the leash doesn't get a choice... weight pull is her destiny!

Keeping her on the track was tough, especially as she was distracted by Elmo's jealous shrieking.  She also doesn't like to let me get away from her... I can't be touching her during the pull, so she has to let me move away at the start line.

We got it, though!  As she was only 17 months, I didn't want her to pull too much weight.   She pulled 820 pounds, 23.4x her body weight of 35 pounds! She was still pulling easily, but I chose to stop there.  The first leg on her UWP, and to spare!

What a kick it was to discover that of the 3 dogs in the 40# class, the APBT apparently wasn't in the mood to pull much, so Elmo's 1220 was 1st place, and Tully's 820 was 2nd!