Once upon a time, dogs pulling carts were a common sight. Before motorized vehicles, a big dog might find employment pulling a load that didn’t require the strength of a horse.
It’s easy to imagine the mess that could result if a dog pulling a milk cart in public became panicked or aggressive. In order to produce dogs who could do the work, desirable temperament traits were bred into the dogs that today’s breeders want to preserve. To this end, some of the breed clubs for dogs that were historically used in draft and carting work have offered testing opportunities. These breeds include the Newfoundland, Bernese Mountain Dog, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Bouvier des Flandres, Giant Schnauzer, Saint Bernard, and Rottweiler.
Dogs who pass the tests are awarded titles by the clubs. The rules vary from one club to another, and as with other tests for dogs, the rules are frequently refined. So before entering any test, be sure to get and study the exact rules currently in effect for that organization.
Draft and carting tests are non-competitive, and every precaution is taken to make them safe for the dogs. Most actual cart-pulling by dogs these days happens in public settings such as parades, so test rules specifically state that carts can be decorated.
Some tests allow for the handler to ride seated in the cart pulled by the dog, but that is the exception, with almost all the tests specifying the handler to walk along with the cart. Draft dog testing requires teamwork between handler and dog—or dogs, in the case of two or more dogs pulling one cart at the direction of one handler for a team title.
Proper Equipment
A large part of the handler’s responsibility is to bring the correct equipment, in good condition, and use it properly. The conditions at the test site determine what equipment will work. In some cases a handler would need to choose not to enter that test, when it would require equipment the handler doesn’t have.
Rigs to use, depending on site conditions, include cart, wagon, sled, toboggan, or travois. The rig must be equipped so that it can not run up on the dog when going downhill. A siwash harness is needed for hilly terrain. When working as a brace pair, dogs can be attached at the collars by a coupler, but it is not required. The collars and leashes used are the same ones allowed in obedience events.
Some of the tests require handlers to bring the weight for their dogs to pull, while others have the test-giving group provide the weight. Handlers are to provide the equipment to secure the load and must demonstrate the ability to secure the load properly. Unsafe equipment or unsafe use of the equipment results in failing the test. The judges stop any situation that puts the dog at risk.
Judges arrive prior to the start of judging in order to check the course for safety. Handlers can join the judges and stewards when the judges explain the ring procedures and walk the group through the course. Each handler must be present for the scheduled equipment check and freight haul weight check, or forfeit the entry. Depending on the test, the weight loaded onto the dog’s rig might range from 5 pounds up to the dog’s own weight.
Events and Titles
Two judges evaluate each performance. Both must give a passing mark for each exercise in order for the dog to receive a title.
Some of the tests follow the pattern of the Newfoundland Club’s test, with a Draft Dog title (DD) and a Team Draft Dog title (TDD). Each dog participating in the team division must have earned DD in the individual division at a previous test.
The Bernese Mountain Dog club and some of the others also offer novice-level titles. The exercises are similar, but dogs do most of them on-leash for Novice Draft and off-leash for Open Draft. The Bernese Mountain Dog Club also offers both Brace Novice Draft and Brace Open Draft titles.
Some of the tests are open only to dogs in the breed of the test-giving club. Others, like the Bernese Mountain Dog and the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog clubs, accept different breeds in their tests when space and rules allow.
Basic Control
The basic control test verifies that the dog will heel, come when called, and stay. Dogs testing for novice must heel on a loose leash and remain within arm’s reach of the handler as the judge calls out a heeling pattern (fast, slow, left turn, right turn, etc). Multiple commands are allowed. Dogs at open level heel off leash.
The recall is about 50 feet, off leash for both novice and open dogs. The dog must wait on command until called, begin moving toward the handler on the first command, and come within arm’s reach.
The stay is a one-minute group exercise with dogs off leash and handlers across the ring. The dog must maintain location and body position until the handler returns.
Harness, Hitch, and Equipment Check
The judge checks the equipment, gives commands, and observes that the handler properly harnesses and hitches the dog. Once the harness is on, the handler commands the dog to back up about 4 feet on the judge’s instruction.
Judges are expected to adapt the commands to the handler, dog, and test site conditions; but without changing the requirements of the test. The backing is one of the few timed parts of a draft dog test, and different groups have different time requirements: 30 seconds, 45 seconds or one minute. Handlers can touch their dogs only the minimum needed to get them harnessed and hitched, using no physical restraint to control their dogs.
Practical Draft Work and Basic Commands: Maneuvering Course
The draft test committee sets up the maneuvering test course and the judge approves or modifies it. The Newfoundland club’s rules specify that this pathway be at least 150 yards long.
The maneuvering course calls for the dog to do circular patterns and 90-degree turns to both left and right, one or more narrow areas about 12 inches wider than the widest part of the rig, slow, halts, backing up, and a removable obstacle. The judge will call out the course pattern, and elements will be in the same order for each dog.
The handler is allowed to walk beside the dog, ahead, behind, or a combination of positions. In novice, the dog is on a loose leash that the handler must not use to guide the dog. The handler is also not allowed to block the dog from going forward in order to enforce a halt.
If the dog’s apparatus bumps into objects more than twice or if there is damage from such a collision, the dog fails. At the removable obstacle, the handler commands the dog to wait, moves the obstacle, commands the dog through the opening, commands another wait and replaces the obstacle in the path before having the dog continue. The handler is not allowed to touch the rig without the judge’s approval.
Three-Minute Group Stay
A group of handlers (depending on the test, may be a maximum of six) harnesses and hitches their dogs and performs the stay in the ring as a group exercise. If the test is novice level, the handlers go across the ring and remain in the dogs’ sight. On the open level the handlers go out of sight for the 3 minutes.
The dogs must remain where they were left, but can change position, such as from a sit to a down. Handlers can praise and pet their dogs on their return, and then they wait in the area for the next exercise.
Freight Load
The judges watch each individual handler load the assigned amount of weight onto the dog’s rig and properly balance and secure it so it will not shift when the rig moves. The judges then observe as the handlers move with their dogs as a group to the start of the distance freight haul course area.
At this point the judges must fail a handler if the load is too heavy for the dog, not balanced, or not securely tied down. They must also mark the handler failed if the dog is not properly harnessed and hitched.
Now or at any other point in the test, a handler must be failed if the rig breaks and the handler cannot fix it within 10 minutes. All this emphasis on equipment is because the dog is dependent on the handler to keep the rig functional and safe.
Distance Freight Haul
The Newfoundland club, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Bouvier des Flandres, and Saint Bernard club tests all specify a one-mile course on the distance freight haul portion of the test. The Bernese Mountain Dog club uses a half-mile course, but their rules call for the open dogs to pull their own weight, which can be a considerably heavier load than the other tests use.
Both judges accompany the handlers and their dogs in a group for the distance freight haul test. Handlers need to stay in sight of at least one judge at all times. Stewards lead the group and set the pace.
Dogs entered for an individual draft or carting title will pull the rig individually on this freight haul. Dogs entered for a brace or team title on the novice or open level will pull a rig with one or more other dogs, under the guidance of one handler per rig. Each dog in the brace or team must first have earned the individual title at that level.
Judging takes into consideration such factors as the handler being allowed to touch the rig only with the judge’s approval. A dog who doesn’t pull the load or who upsets the rig must be failed. A handler who harnesses, hitches or loads the dog and rig incorrectly will fail. A handler who guides the dog with the leash or mistreats the dog in any way will fail. A dog who behaves aggressively toward another dog or a person will fail.
Intriguing Distractions
Dogs are tested with at least one distraction on either the maneuvering course or the distance freight haul, and it may be more than one. The distraction is a surprise, so if done on the maneuvering course it is changed for each new dog. The dogs working in a group on the distance freight haul could experience it at the same time, and an unplanned distraction can also serve the function of the test.
The Bernese Mountain Dog and Greater Swiss Mountain Dog tests call for two distractions, one auditory and one visual. Suggestions include banging pans, a crinkly food bag, a car horn, a camera flash, another animal on leash or in arms, a person on a horse and children running. The dog must not become uncontrollable and must quickly get back to work at the handler’s direction.
Proud Carriage
Draft or carting tests are challenging, but if done correctly should be fun for the dogs. Under the watchful eyes of loving handlers, knowledgeable judges, and dedicated test committee members, dogs are protected from the various hazards that could otherwise harm them in such an activity.
Trained draft and carting dogs strut their stuff at celebrations of various kinds, being treated as the celebrities that of course they are. For transportation and toting freight hither and yon, happily we now have engines that don’t feel pain or exhaustion as the working draft dogs of the past often did. These days the dogs travel as passengers, and that is real progress!