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




Quote Originally Posted by CA Jack View Post
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