Anyone have info on conditioning a performance dog up to its ideal match weight instead of the typical ,conditioning downward to match weight.Ive heard Mr.don maloney used to do this but through my research & study I cant find solid proof if anyone has experience please respond.a.Also heard fatbill did this before...would the keep change?etc?
I've done this a few times and yes it works. It beats bringing the dog down a lb a week and sometimes the dog doesn't make weight or lose strength. Have your dog be 2 lb over his best weight, work him down to pit weight within 2 weeks and keep him there. The longer i have him at his best weight the stronger he can develope throughout his keep. I know some people will start out with beef then switch to chicken a couple weeks out but i'll start out with chicken and end with chicken. I won't change his diet and risk running hot. If he does good thoughout his keep, keep it that way to the end is my motto.Originally Posted by ;3068
I personally don't understand this premise of bringing a dog down a lb a week. If you're actively trying to get a dog shown, the dog should be, AT MOST, 2 lbs over his agreed upon weight before the show is even set in stone. If a dog doesn't make weight, it's because the owner called the wrong weight. It has nothing to do with the dog as that is strictly human error. If the dog is weak, again, that is strictly human error due to any number of things.
I will say that I agree in that there is zero reason to be changing the diet a couple of weeks out. I personally don't think it's going to make a dog run hot, but I also see zero reasoning in doing so.
Great minds think alike.
George Armitage used to condition his dogs this way, I believe his keep is in the book "30 years with fighting dogs".
I'v always wanted to try his method of bringing a dog up in weight, but just never got round to it.
I can't imagine losing the required fat and muscle, to be under weight, being very good for a dog throughout the rigors of its conditioning process.
To me, it makes much more conceptual sense to have the dog right about where he needs to be, just a couple pounds over, and that gradually through conditioning, he is primed to be at his absolute best weight for the day of the show.
Even being @ pit weight isn't good for a dog for a long stretch, it is a brief window that needs to be taken advantage of, and then the dog needs to put on weight again. So I can't imagine it being good for a dog to go through an entire keep UNDER pit weight ... and then to have the fight of his life at pit weight (which weight itself should only be touched on briefly).
Jack
A lot of people will pick ideal pit weight and then add one pound. I have always liked to keep the dog near pit weight throughout the keep, never more than a pound over or a pound under. I like for the days work to start at or about pit weight so at the end of the work he is slightly under pit weight. I am trying to mimic show night conditions. If he is 45 at weigh in and the average show is over in or around the hour mark odds are he is at 44 around the hour mark, if not 43 1/2. If he is worked at 46-47 and then fed down/worked down to a pit weight of 45 then at the hour mark he is light at 44 and expected to deliver everything he did at 45-47 but weighing only 44. It is one thing to give weight at show time but entirely different to be light an hour or so in. I like for my dogs to start work at weight and experience hard work at weight and then learn to work a pound light which mimics the load on show night. Then fed up at the end of the day to be just about on weight for tomorrow. I keep them three to four pounds over during the rest of the year. maybe more if the winter is unusually hard. EWO
Great conditioners think alike
http://www.thepitbullbible.com/forum...hp?dog_id=8046
Same under weight keep..same result
A dog should be brought down to weight, not under and back up. I agree with Jack.
Here's an important element to consider in terms of conditioning. Danny Burton, one of the greatest conditioners of all time and a understudy to Earl Tudor himself, said it best. You have to believe there are only two things that will stop your dog. Heat and the inability to breath. To get a dog to the cardiovascular level required, you cannot do so properly, or in a healthy manner, with the dog below his best strength levels. You can bring one down and increase cardio capacity, but not the other way around.
It doesn't matter the athlete. The training is done for ONE SINGLE EVENT. It's not done for anything other than that. I point this out to validate Jack's point that optimally, a conditioner is trying to have their athlete at PEAK CONDITION for that day, that time and for the required time needed to win. After that, it's back to a less stressful lifestyle. Training for anything is very stressfull and can only be done for a short period of time because no matter the objective, it is extreme and no one or nothing can live "extreme" every day of it's life.
The old man Jack makes reference to is a great example. The secret to his success is picking a good athlete and OUT WORKING his opponent. Nothing fancy at all. One of the better dogmen in Texas bases his entire keep around hand walking. Burton based his on what he called a "coyote trot". He believed when a dog could get into that "coyote trot" for hours, he was good to go. He used a cat mill more than anything.
Burton told me one time, and I love this b/c so many people have a different perspective on things, but he said, "Hell son. I ain't here to find out how game my dog is. I'm here to see how game your dog is"
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