MN Disc Dog discussion

Living in the arctic, much of our winter activities have to be quick so we can get back inside after a short while. Outside of jogging with me in the mornings and doing some light disc work, most of our winter work is drag weight training or the spring pole.

Kayden's days of competing in weight pull are over, but we still do a session or two of drag weight training each week to work on building some strength and endurance. You get a lot of odd looks hiking down a trail with your dog pulling a tire or two, but it's great when you don't have a lot of time. Usually 15 minutes of pulling and he is gassed.





We also have a spring pole for him in our garage and I usually put him up on it for 15 minutes or so while I'm clearing the driveway. I keep it low enough in the garage so that he can easily touch which helps to put more of the focus on his rear.

He looks a little possessed in this picture but he's just havin fun

That is funny! He looks so intent.

I tried a spring pole in the basement for Ora but she never got into it. Ill have to try it again and see if Jasper will use it.

I've had dogs who wouldn't give it a second look and dogs that I couldn't get off of it. A few I had were a bit sound sensitive so the sound of the spring turned them off. For those, I replaced the spring with a wheel barrow inner tube.

Kayden's the only dog I've had who would hang from a tree branch if you let him so the spring pole has been a saving grace with him.

Love the pictures! I hadn't thought about doing winter drag training, I'll have to get Layla's harness out. Do you think it's okay to put a coat on under the harness? We've been taking advantage of the huge piles of snow around the parking lots at the high school and elementary school. Ten minutes of running through really deep snow really does her in. The only problem is that we keep losing balls in the deep snow, I'm going to have to drive around when everything melts and collect all her lost toys...

Lol, yeah I don't see why a coat wouldn't fit over a weight pull harness if it was big enough. Kayden isn't a huge fan of the cold (has a really short tight coat) so I have a fleece pullover for him

Mojo wears his coat under his weight pull harness. He has a Ruffwear coat, and it fits snugly under the harness....

Andrea

quick pic. harness is from CDPits

Snow + harness + happy dog + sled = Happy person!

That's nice Andrea!