Conditioning a dog UP TO WEIGHT??

[OGDOGG]

Every one made good points as to how one should condition their dogs. The most logic way to bring in a dog is working them down to pit weight. But like I stated before I've done it a few times bringing them up to weight and it worked perfectly for me. Matter of fact when PonchoBack was going for his first and Ch Buddy for his second, both dogs were on a 8 week keep, and out of those 8 weeks 2 weeks they were 1-2 pounds under and 6 weeks they were on weight or half a pound over. At the show every one there told me how good they looked and when they performed, they basically went in there and did their thing. They were strong, didn't lose mouth, didn't run hot and most importantly barely got touched. Buddy going 40 minutes and destroyed his opponent(picked up) and PonchoBack going over the hour mark. He also destroyed his opponent(picked up). They were clearly the 2 best in show that day and also the best in conditioning. The only reason they weren't picked to be BIS was because we left ASAP.
I believe there is no wrong way to bring in a dog to perform at its peak. The problem is if you don't know what you're doing and dont have a good eye, it doesn't matter how you do it, you're gonna mess it up.

[Officially Retired]

Every one made good points as to how one should condition their dogs. The most logic way to bring in a dog is working them down to pit weight. But like I stated before I've done it a few times bringing them up to weight and it worked perfectly for me. Matter of fact when PonchoBack was going for his first and Ch Buddy for his second, both dogs were on a 8 week keep, and out of those 8 weeks 2 weeks they were 1-2 pounds under and 6 weeks they were on weight or half a pound over. At the show every one there told me how good they looked and when they performed, they basically went in there and did their thing. They were strong, didn't lose mouth, didn't run hot and most importantly barely got touched. Buddy going 40 minutes and destroyed his opponent(picked up) and PonchoBack going over the hour mark. He also destroyed his opponent(picked up). They were clearly the 2 best in show that day and also the best in conditioning. The only reason they weren't picked to be BIS was because we left ASAP.

It sounds like they came in great, but this does not necessarily mean that they couldn't have been better (with the same work, same diet, and against the same dogs) being brought down to weight instead of up. In other words, good dogs worked hard, fed a good diet, and brought in on weight are going to be GOOD, regardless.

I just think it takes more out of a dog NOT to have sufficient muscle/fat while being worked hard. I think it harms them internally in ways that are not readily apparent.

I believe there is no wrong way to bring in a dog to perform at its peak. The problem is if you don't know what you're doing and dont have a good eye, it doesn't matter how you do it, you're gonna mess it up.

I think there are a thousand wrong ways to bring a dog in. I know, I did a lot of them when I was green

I believe there are also a thousand ways to bring a dog in "pretty good" shape, good enough to win (especially if the dog is real good).

However, IMO there are much fewer ways to bring a dog in optimal shape ...

Jack