# UKC Announces Their Decision on their Weight Pull Program



## Darkmoon (Mar 12, 2007)

In December 2010, the UKC announced that their Weight Pull Program was on Probation for "issues" they were seeing. All Weight Pulling in the UKC halted on June 30th 2011, and the UKC Community waited to see what the outcome would be. Today we got the word:

http://www.ukcdogs.com/WebSite.nsf/News/WeightPullAnnouncement07292011042949PM


> Weight Pull Announcement
> 
> Posted on 07/29/2011
> Permanent Link
> ...


I can honestly say I am HIGHLY disappointed in the UKC and this new ruling. 

To put this in terms everyone can understand, dogs no longer are allowed to advance and do better then they use to. Nubs max pull was 3,612lbs (remember this was with a bad ACL), under the rules the MAX Nubs would be allowed to pull is 2,925lbs before he was excused from pulling. 

One of my friends in the sport did the calculations, to go from the very first title, to the highest title you can get now under the new rules, if you maxed out how many points you can get EVERY time you pulled (impossible to do) it would take 111 days to do it. 
111 days x $25 entry fee = $2775 to get the title.

If a weight pull happened EVERY WEEKEND, it would STILL take over a year to get your max title. Normally in Michigan and surrounding areas, there is one WP a month. If you didn't miss a weight pull, it would take NINE YEARS to get that title. 

So yes, I will not be pulling with the UKC really. Maybe their first two titles, and then I'm done. It's not worth the time or money. Thanks UKC for nothing. Thanks for just getting rid of another program. "Our dogs do stuff" yeah right.


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## +two (Jul 12, 2011)

I am looking into weight pulling and am trying to learn as much as possible. 

Why did the UKC decide on these new rulings? By the way its written it sounds like handlers were over-working their dogs and unnecessarily stressing them. What is your opinion?

What other organizations have weight-pull programs? Are they just as competitive? Do they have similar restrictions?

Can you explain your calculation? I don't know how you would start your dog in pulling, but are there set guidelines for how much extra weight your dog can pull (like, can you only add 5 pounds per successful pull to get to your max or can you try for your max whenever)? 

I'd love to hear everything you have to say about the sport and any insight you can give would be greatly appreciated!


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## winniec777 (Apr 20, 2008)

That sounds really disappointing. I enjoy seeing posts about Nubs and his weight pulls. It's too bad they're making it so difficult.


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## Darkmoon (Mar 12, 2007)

+two said:


> Why did the UKC decide on these new rulings?


 The way the program as set up before hand you had placements, and those placements counted toward more points and titles. You also had Most Weight Pulled, and Most Weight Pulled by Percentage which gave you some extra bonus points toward your next title as well. There was also a top ten for certain breeds (APBT, ABD, and all others) which was for bragging rights. What started happening was some clubs were cheating, and letting their members do things they shouldn't have. So things were reported but because of no proof, they couldn't do anything about it which caused a bunch of drama. So vendettas were made, and false reports started being filed which cost the UKC $$$$$ to investigate and it ended up causing more money the what WP was bringing in. 



> By the way its written it sounds like handlers were over-working their dogs and unnecessarily stressing them. What is your opinion?


As far as anyone can remember, there has NEVER been a dog seriously harmed in WP. There has been some pulled mussels when a dog miss stepped or wasn't properly trained to work the track, but besides that, nothing. The dogs when they can't pull anymore, or are just to tired, they tell you. It's the judges call as well if your dog is going to hurt itself. The WP community will SHUN a person if they are causing harm to their dog. I've seen it myself and have been apart of that. We are there to show our dogs are better then just pets, not to cause them any harm.



> Can you explain your calculation?


This will be LONG:
UWP- 3 qualifying pulls
UWPCH - 100 points
UWPCHX- 250 ponts
UGWPCH - 500 points
UGWPC1 - 1000 points
------------------------
1850 points/ 20 points = 92.5 pulls (I think she added in some of the titles that you get for doing so many points on different things like 100 on rails, 100 on wheels, then 100 on ice will earn you UWPS which is it's own title and doesn't cause any extra work)

1 WP weekend a month = 2 pulls a month on avg 46 weekends to get all titles. There are no events normally in Jan or Feb so

46 weekends/ 10 months = 4.6 years to get all the titles ONLY IF YOU PULL 20 POINTS EVERY TIME and that doesn't happen. I've been to pulls where the cart was so hard to pull, that not even the top pullers in the country could get more then their 10 points. My dog NEVER out pulls them, and he out pulled them that weekend by 100lbs.

So, if you start your dog at 2 years (like you should), your dog will get all it's titles by it's 6.6 years of age. Wow...

And actually it's more then that, because the 3 qualifying pulls has to be hosted by two different events. So add on another weekend for that. IF your lucky like I was, you can earn your UWP in one weekend if you his a 3 day event where two different clubs are hosting it. 




> I don't know how you would start your dog in pulling, but are there set guidelines for how much extra weight your dog can pull (like, can you only add 5 pounds per successful pull to get to your max or can you try for your max whenever)?





> What other organizations have weight-pull programs? Are they just as competitive? Do they have similar restrictions?


At the top of this forum there's a sticky about weight pulling. Many of your questions will be answered there.


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