03/09/2003

By BILL KETTLER, The (Medford) Mail Tribune

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- "Come on, Jeremie!" Karen Bodeving shouts as her St. Bernard leans into its harness. "Come on! Come on! Right here! Digdigdigdigdigdig!"

The dog claws for traction, legs pumping, and a ton of dead weight behind her starts to move. A dozen spectators yell encouragement as the dog labors toward her master, pulling a wagon laden with concrete blocks.

"Come on!" the Grants Pass woman hollers, walking slowly backward, the dog inching toward her. "Right here!" she cries, pointing in front of her to keep the dog on course. "Pull it!"

A Saint Bernard standing tall.

Huge dogs pulled mighty loads as the St. Bernard Club of Southern Oregon recently staged its first weight-pulling contest. St. Bernard handlers brought dogs from as far away as Idaho and Washington to see how much weight they could pull.

The giant dogs with the famous droopy jowls were bred centuries ago to aid foot travelers on dangerous mountain passes between Italy and Switzerland. These days most people are drawn to the dogs for their gentle disposition and laid-back temperament, but some folks enjoy watching them flex their muscles.

"I like to watch the dogs work, to do what they were bred to do" said Harley Whitcomb of Boise, who brought his dog, Nellie, to Grants Pass to compete. "You get to see the sheer strength of the animal and the animal gets instant gratification."

Whitcomb and others like him haul their dogs to pulling competitions around the United States to earn awards called "titles" that are bestowed by the St. Bernard Club of America. Dogs earn weight-pulling titles by pulling 10, 12 or 14 times their body weight a distance of 16 feet at three separate events. Some dogs have pulled more than 4,000 pounds.

"They do it strictly for the love of the handler," said Vicki Graves of Tacoma, Wash., who judged the contest. She watched each pull to ensure the dog's safety and verify that handlers do not touch their animals.

"My dog Amber does it because she loves me," Graves said. "She'll move heaven and earth for me.

"They love to have people praising them," she said. "They love the pets and all the kisses."

"You can't make them do it," said Carol Beck of Trail, president of the local St. Bernard club. "If it's too much weight, they just stand there and look at you like 'If you want it pulled, pull it yourself.' "

The competition starts with dogs pulling an empty 275-pound cart to warm up and remind them that they're in a pulling competition. Additional weight (usually 150 pounds) is added with each pull.

The dogs have 60 seconds to pull the load once they start. Handlers cannot touch a dog after the pulling starts, but they can talk as much as they want. Some shout commands. Others beg. Whitcomb, the Boise man, got down on his knees in an unsuccessful nose-to-muzzle effort to encourage Nellie to pull her load.

"This is only her second time doing this," he said.

Experienced dogs perform with barely a nod from their handlers. Ray Slish of Kent, Wash., spoke quietly to his dog Hennesy at the starting line, then prompted him to pull with a single handclap. The dog obediently pulled 1,500 pounds across the finish line.

Beck said St. Bernards' slow metabolism gives them their mellow disposition, but they must be trained from puppyhood to make them obedient adults because they can grow as large as 200 pounds.

"They sleep a lot," she said. "They don't have any nervous energy. If you want to go for a walk, they'll walk. If not, they'll sleep."

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)