[Woody Taylor]

I guess I could use a stupid check here...

http://www.rei.com/product/11950089.htm

I bought this tonight, hung it on a tree, and let Annie roll on it for about 15 minutes. She loved it. Then I started thing about it...this activity is like the springpoles folks down South used to set pits on for open-ended nutty exercise, stuff like this (what a picture, got to love them pits):

http://ourworld.cs.com/dreadlives609/1a160b80.gif

If that dog did not have HD, my guess is she has it now.

Now, this is not one of those Okie springpoles, this is sitting about 2.5 feet off the ground, and she does not have to jump and it's not strong enough to do anything other than flip out when she releases it.

Is this going to cause me some trouble down the line? I'm just thinking about this for occasional use, for the intent of mixing up her routine a bit. not a replacement for anything else.

 

[Bob Scott]

Woody, with your goals being is ARS, I don't think it will be a problem. In Schutzhund, a deep bite is preferred and springpole work goes against a deep bite. We have a number of pits in out club and all who have had spring pole work have had problems with deep bites. The way it was explained to me was tha the dogs bite shallow on the spring pole to give them more room to breath. Contrary to what many folks would think, a shallow bite is very common in pits. They want to hold with their canines and shake the $#!+ out of whatever they have hold of. Some are just natural chrushers but not as many as the shake and break pits.
Others may have better info.

 

[Sarah Hall]

I use something like this with Gretchen, although we went ghetto and just made it outself and attatch the cheapo toys from Petsmart (most of the time we have an "indestructible kong ring toy" however they keep getting destroyed). Here's a couple pics.

 

[Woody Taylor]

Thanks to you both. And yeah Sarah, we are thinking the same...I give that tug about five more minutes with Annie...then I'll cycle in some of those "indestructible" tires.

Seems like a good way for her to vent, though, I'd like her to have an outlet like this every once in awhile during the day when she's in the backyard for a bit.

 

[Sarah Hall]

Yep. Gretchen takes her frustration out on it. She especially likes to rip it apart when the pups were barking all night in her ear (she's in between the 15 wk old and the 11 week olds) or if another female is in heat or has been bred(jealous?). We also let her play with it, and we hit it (the rope it's attatched to) with sticks and really get her fighting (don't have our tugs in yet, we ordered them a LONG time ago!). We'll also practice very light pops on her sides and legs with a foam pool noodle (I know they're called something else, I just cannot remember what). She loves it, and loves to tug on anything (towels, rags, old shirts, etc) and we can't wait until we can get her on a sleeve.

 

[Kristina Senter]

I actually do quite a bit of springpole work with my mal. No 12', but true springpole (well above dog's height) none the less, and anyone who's seen Gator can attest that deep bites are not a problem. However, we introduced the springpole as a training device, with a rope over a tree branch with me holding onto the other end of the rope. It would be down so that all fours were on the ground and then would "escape" up the tree if he let go. If he got a good grip, I'd ease up on the rope to let him carry it off a short ways.
Same basic principles as a tug, but with MUCH more of a workout. It is something you have to be careful with, though. Probably better left to the dog that already has a full mouth bite when you aren't using it like I mentioned (on the other end). Although, it does self-reward a deep bite to some extent because it's the only way the dog can hold on if you have it suspended high enough.

-Kristina

-Kristina

 

[Jeff Oehlsen]

And as an added bonus, if you live in a crappy neighborhood, you can have your equipment and dog confiscated for owning "dog fighting" equipment.

 

[Kristina Senter]

On an entirely unrelated but irrestistable note to that, I heard recently of the police "confiscating" a pair of household scissors because it was the closest thing they could find that may resemple fighting paraphanalia. They noted that they "could" have been used to crop ears. I guess I'm just downright going to jail! Springpole and scissors all in one household! Might help if I owned a Pittbull........