Need advice on working dogs

[ninny]

I am trying to find a weight pull harness for my lab. I found one this one


http://hamiltonproducts.com/harnesses.htm Its the weight pull harness and traces half way down. I can order it through work. What do you think of it and will it work for sledding/carting as well?
Do i need the traces?

Is there a good place to order equiment?

We are going to be getting another dog from a pound more then likely this spring. Any thing i should be a aware of in the hunt for another working dog?



How are husky types with Illinois weather? Our newif handles it okay because of the pond at my parents but we dont have one yet.

 

[PotterWatch]

I bought our dog's harness from Alpine Outfitters. We are not using him for carting at this point though, only bikejoring. When we start carting, I will be buying a different type of harness.
http://www.alpineoutfitters.net/Secure/Scripts/default.asp

Someone recommended fidogear to me at one point also.
http://www.fidogear.com/store/merchant.ihtml?id=5&step=2

I have been told by a couple different people that this is a great company also:
http://www.nordkyn.com/

Edited to say that I don't think a weight pulling harness would be the best choice for sledding, but maybe someone else will know better. I imagine you could use it for carting though.

 

[freerange freaks]

What do you want to do with your dog? Do you want to enter weight pulling contests? Do you want to haul firewood around your house? Or bikejoring/skijoring?

There are a ton of different harness types out there. If you want an all purpose harness I would reccomend a "wheel dog" or "freighting" harness. You want a long harness with a spreader bar that attaches to what ever you are pulling from directly behind the dog. I took a look at the one from Nordyk and it looked pretty good. And the price was pretty reasonable.

sorry, thats "Nordkyn" not "Nordyk"

 

[Mountain Man Jim]

One of the things that Great Pyrenees were breed for was carting. For some reason I am having a hard time imagining a Lab pulling a cart, but our Pyr, that I can envision.

I believe that there are some Pyr carting groups and websites out there. Might be a good resource.

Pyrs are of course great with the cold like the Newfie. Plus they make great CGD (Chicken Guardian Dogs)

Jim

 

[Vcomb]

if you're going to have him pulling heavier loads or entered in weight pulling competitions you may want to look into getting a custom fitted harness. i can't imagine too many places designing them with labs in mind.

 

[PotterWatch]

Quote:
If you check out the fidogear link, you will see a picture of a black lab hitched to a cart. If you think labs pulling a cart is odd, you can see pictures of mini poodles pulling a scooter on this site:
http://www.dogscooter.com/index.html

 

[redhen]

i also keep thinking of trying to find something like this for my saint bernard...he CAN pull!...i mean its amazing how strong they are!...i figure it will give him something to do...tire him out..get out some of his energy...i never see any dog carts ..but i was wondering about little pony carts?...

 

[Mountain Man Jim]

Quote:
If you check out the fidogear link, you will see a picture of a black lab hitched to a cart. If you think labs pulling a cart is odd, you can see pictures of mini poodles pulling a scooter on this site:
http://www.dogscooter.com/index.html

I guess you can train most dogs to do anything. My thought was that Labs weren't breed to work. I do know people who cart often use Pyrs ... and then a bunch of other dogs ...

I found these websites. They're kind of interesting, especially the last one:

http://www.cartingwithyourdog.com/cpgall01.html

http://www.dogguide.net/blog/2008/08/ask-the-dog-guide-weather-tolerant-cart-dog/

http://dogworks.com/store/wagon.html

http://www.sylvanborzoi.com/driving/driving.html

http://www.horsecart.com/index.html

http://www.pacifier.com/~carriage/cancar.html

http://staff.petech.ac.za/cartingcorner/default.htm

Jim

 

[ninny]

I have a pony cart wonder & harness wonder if i could make them work. My lab is gonna be a big boy 100 pds at least. He is 9 months and 90pds now. Stupidly strong and built more like a working dog then a hunting dog.

 

[Rosalind]

I got my cart & harness from this place:
ATBB

The harness is beautiful, adjustable, and, best of all, washable. Our other dog and various critters like to hang off the Pyr's ruff/mane around his neck--they find that the harness makes it ever so much more convenient to hang off him, so it's good to have a harness that is resistant to puppy/cat spit and occasional chewing.