Sunday 27th November, saw almost perfect pulling competitions. The weather was cool and dry, albeit with very strong winds. Again all 3 “Luponooshka” Dogs were entered, this time with Selene in full competition instead of Novice.

This was a special day for us and Selene, as it marked the anniversary of when we collected her from her breeder when she was 6 months old. Selene weighed in at 90lbs and started off well, pulling the first weight of 400lbs quite easily. We then made the decision to skip the 500lbs pull as she found the first one really easy and put her in for the 600lbs. This time she wasn’t too sure and lacked the confidence she had on the first pull. Selene then failed to pull the 800lbs deciding that sitting down on the carpet was much better than doing some work! We are still proud of her achievement and in just 3 competitions has gone from a girl who wouldn’t walk into the chute, t a girl who is more than happy to run in there and be hooked up. Building confidence all the time.

Mina was also not on her best form, after weighing in at her usual 92lbs, she only managed to pull as far as 1300lbs, failing to pull the 1600lbs, and like her sister Selene, decided to sit on the carpet and look the other way, ignoring anything i said to her. Such is the way with these fickle girls, if they don’t want to pull, there is no convincing them otherwise.

Lucien, however, was on top form. Weighing in at the heaviest he has ever been at 109lbs, he pulled consistently and quickly. That was up until 1900lbs, where after skipping the two previous pulls, he got a few paces into the pull, stopped, put his nose to the floor and became obsessed with sniffing the ground! A grumble and shout of “NO” from me got him pulling again. That was until he stopped again, and like before, nose to the ground, sniffing away! I shouted “NO” at him, and told him to pull. A pull that would normally have taken under 12 seconds, took well over 20 seconds to complete.

I took a gamble, in the hope that whatever he had found wasn’t important enough for him to not listen to me for and skipped 2000lbs bringing him back in on 2100lbs. By this weight, only 2 dogs remained in competition, including Lucien. He had to pull this weight. Hooking him up in the chute, i held my hands either side of his face, looking him in the eye and told him to focus. I stood at the finish line, 16 feet away, and gave him the command to pull. This time, he pulled, not once stopping to sniff where he had done at the last weight.

Lucien then went on to pull the 2200lbs to gain Most Weight Pulled and 1st in his weight class. To gain the highest % pulled, Lucien would have needed to pull 2700lbs. This was a big jump from 2200lbs, and with the UK record being 2400lbs, we decided to skip two weights and try and pull the 2500lbs to break the UK Record.

I took him to the “on deck” area, for his routine, “pre-pull wee” (Lucien is a creature of habit), then took him in the chute to be hooked up. Again i held his head and asked him to focus. I called him, not sure of how well he would do. This is his 3rd attempt at pulling this weight and each time he was getting closer to completing it, missing it by just a couple of inches just 2 weeks earlier in the wet. This time was different. He heaved into his harness, and broke the trolley from a standstill, got it passed the first little ridge that caught him out on his first attempt, and kept pulling hard, my voice getting louder and higher pitched the closer he got. He kept pulling, over the 2nd little ridge that he got stuck on his 2nd attempt at this weight at the start of November. I was screaming at him, and he kept pulling and didn’t stop until he reached me at the finish where he had the biggest hug. Everyone cheered and clapped, and I had tears in my eyes.

Watch a video of Lucien weightpulling!

This is Lucien’s 12th Class Win, and 12th Most Weight Pulled in a row. He is now the Current UK Record Holder for 2500lbs! A fantastic achievement in only his 2nd working season and only his 13th ever weight pull competition.

Written by Samantha Taylor.