Conditioning Your Dog For A Match

The art of CONDITIONING is the great buzzword that abounds in the pit dog game. Bloodlines and conditioning programs - along with the results of actual fights - are about all pit dog men ever talk about. I have been exposed to a wide array of conditioning programs over the last decade of my involvement in these dogs. If you're new to this, you must keep in mind that these fights make human fights appear laughable so great is the difference in ability, stamina, and courage in the dogs. There are never time limits. It's all or nothing from the word GO. The art of conditioning, therefore, is one of the, if not THE, most important of aspects of the pit dog game (other than having a good dog). Still, there are too many instances to count where one dog has defeated a superior dog because his owner was the superior conditioner - and the otherwise better dog fell apart through lack of proper conditioning as the fight wore on. I have been on both ends of this equation and am still learning and always try to keep an open mind to something new. Most experienced dog men can tell whether a dog is in superb condition or not just by looking at him and the way he moves - and it has nothing to do with muscles, either. There is a glow, a vitality, and movement like quicksilver of a properly-conditioned dog that cannot escape an educated eye.

As with human conditioning, there is a great disparity of belief as to "how" to condition a pit dog. Pulling weights vs. free running...carpet mills vs. slat mills vs. electric mills, etc...the ideologies differ vastly as to how to bring one in "right." The best conditioners (i.e., the ones with a proven track record of success over the very best dogs in the country) believe IT DEPENDS ON THE DOG how you condition it. For instance, if you have a "shotgun dog" (that is, a "Mike Tyson" that is extremely strong, hard mouthed, and comes out like a bat out of Hell), you do a lot of explosive work, heavy windsprints on a slat treadmill, followed by rest intervals, followed by windsprints, power chain pulling, etc. Basically, you want to increase your dog's ability to devastate in short order, by increasing the amount of time he can sustain a ballistic attack without tiring, because that is his style. There are various exercises to increase explosiveness. However, if you are a smart conditioner, you also want to train him for the distance...just in case he doesn't blow through "Ol' Rover" as fast as you had hoped.

By contrast, suppose you had to face the shotgun dog with a skin-pinching, defensive, ear-sucker? You would definitely train this boy to go the distance. You would have him go for long distance runs on an e-mill (electric mill) at a controlled pace, you would windsprint train him - and you would also springpole him. (A springpole is a device where you hang a garage-door spring from a tree w/ a hide attached to it, which your dog latches onto and shakes like crazy. The springpole should be placed high enough so that your dog's FRONT feet are OFF the ground while he's clamped onto the hide - but his BACK feet are still ON the ground so he's "standing"). What this does is, while your dog's working the hide like crazy, he's getting used to biting something, shaking it up and exercising, all the while something's in his mouth. The reason for this is he's going to have to be holding out Ol' Mike Tyson who's going to be barreling after him. The skin-pincher is going to have to get used to panting (which requires his mouth be OPEN) out of the SIDES of his mouth with it shut - clamped on Mike Tyson's ear (or nose or face), to hold him out while he's charging and never letting go. Thus you train him for this w/ a springpole and by incredibly long runs. He's got to be able to go the distance.

While he's going the distance, the defensive dog cannot afford to let go of Mike Tyson to catch a breath, otherwise the shotgun dog will get into his vitals and do serious damage. Therefore the defensive dog has to be trained to hold on throughout the onslaught, even when he's tired, panting out of the sides of his mouth, NOT with an open mouth. Meanwhile, Mike Tyson is being trained to be explosive and get through Rover's defense to seriously injure him and get his owner to pick him up. Nonetheless, each dog ALSO has to be trained in the other's specialty. The shotgun dog has to be prepared by his conditioner to go the distance, in case he can't power through Ol' Rover, and the skin-pincher has to have some strength trained into him to be able match up to, and hold out, the charging Mike Tyson. Usually, either the shotgun dog winds up powering his way through his foe - or Ol' Rover takes poor Mike into deep water and drowns him, finishing the job once poor Mike isn't so strong anymore. A great conditioner can make a shotgun dog "barnstorm" all night long...or turn a frail skin pincher into an impenetrable, defensive powerhouse. Such is the recipe for a classic "styles" match in the dogs...

Getting back to conditioning, the best conditioners of pit dogs train their dogs according to their styles, yes, but they also train their charges at ALL levels. My dogs happen to be of the "Holyfield," "Ali," "Hagler," and "Chavez" variety - they're not skin-pinchers, nor do they end things in one bite. But they can, and do, hurt the other dog big time by accumulation of punishment. They're dead game, durable as hell, athletic, and they have incredible natural air. Now natural air is great, but it is NOT the same thing as muscular condition. I have seen dogs not be winded before...but watched their wobbly legs tell the tale of insufficient muscular condition. This is what happened to Poncho when he lost to CH Leonard.

The bottom line most conditioners try to achieve (regardless if they have a shotgun dog, a skin-pincher - or a dog somewhere in the middle like mine tend to be) is BALANCE. To make sure all potential levels of combat intensity are trained for, you have to simulate them as best you can in training. To do this, you need to implement some sort of (what is called) Periodization Training. That is, have super hard days of all out activity - hardcore windsprints, weightpulls, etc. - with frequent rest intervals in between. On each successive hard day, you try to increase the amount of time a dog can go all out as he progresses daily and weekly, while keeping his intermittent rest periods constant. You follow these days with days of moderate, prolonged, but still fairly-well-paced activity, with fewer rest periods but longer sessions - at tough but lessened pace than the hard days. You try to increase the duration of these sessions too as the keep progresses. You follow these days with light days - extremely long walks, or trots on an e-mill, with little or no rest at all. This is to "give 'em a leg to stand on" in case things go for hours. Then you follow the light days with one-to-three days' rest, depending on your dog's energy level. All aspects - the heavy explosive days, the moderate (but still tough) exertion days, and the low energy, long-term stamina days - are increased in intensity as the conditioning period (called a "keep") progresses week-by-week...both in intensity & duration of each workout, as well as the number of hard days in a row, or medium days in a row, while keeping rest days constant, etc. This is where you adapt the keep to your dog's style: if he's a barnstormer concentrate on the hard days; if he's a "Holyfield" concentrate on the medium days; if he's a skin-pincher focus on the light days.

Yet you're still training him at all levels, because a match encompasses all levels. It starts out hard, it slows down a bit after awhile but is still intense, and finally it peters out and slows down considerably.So you need to train your dog to excel at all stages, preferably maxing out the amount of time he can perform in the first two. [Realistically, most of the match will be fought at the moderate level, which is why you generally load up on this level in training. But again, you might want to load up on hard days or light days depending on your dog's style.] In any event, you definitely want to train your dog at all intensity levels in some capacity. Some really serious conditioners work their dogs out twice a day, morning and evening, and also feed their dogs twice a day (an hour after each workout) on this method.

Here's an example of how a well-rounded pit dog regimen should look:

DAY 1

[Explosive Hard Day]

(Workout 1 - Morning) Carpet Mill the dog all out in intervals w/ rest. Start with one set of 30 seconds. Increase the duration of time on the mill, as well as the number of sets of this time the dog does on the mill, as the days and weeks go by in the keep - but try to keep the rest time constant. Never go over 5 sets of 5 minutes. Try to have the dog rest only one minute between sets. [Less is OK, depending on your dog.] After this flirtpole the dog hard for one session. Start with 5 minutes. Increase the duration of time in this one session as the days and weeks go by in the keep. Don't go more than 25 minutes. [Less is OK, depending on your dog.] Rest, rubdown, feed, water.

(Workout 2 - Evening) All-out windsprints on a free-turning slat mill in intervals w/ rest. Start with one set of 30 seconds. Increase the duration of time, as well as the number of sets of this time the dog does on the mill, as the days and weeks go by in the keep - but try to keep the rest time constant. Never go over 5 sets of 5 minutes. Try to have the dog rest only one minute between sets. [Less is OK, depending on your dog.] Rest, rubdown, feed, water.

DAY 2

[Moderate Hard Day]

(Workout 1 - Morning) Take the dog for a long walk dragging a 5-10 lb. chain. Start with a 5 lb. chain for a 15 minute ealk. Increase the time of the walk, and the weight of the chain, as the days and weeks go by in the keep. [Less is OK, depending on your dog.] When you're done, springpole the dog for one fixed period of time. Start with 5 minutes. Increase the amount of time on the springpole as the days and weeks go by in the keep. Don't go over 1 hour. [Less is OK, depending on your dog.] Rest, rubdown, feed, water.

(Workout 2 - Evening) Prolonged, moderate-paced running on an e-mill for a specified length of time. Start with 10 - 15 minutes. Increase the time on the e-mill as the days and weeks go by in the keep. Once you get to 30 minutes, give a 2 minute "empty" break. Never go more than four 30-minute sets, with 2-minute breaks inbetween. [Less is OK, depending on your dog.] Rest, rubdown, feed, water.

DAY 3

[Distance day]

(Workout 1 - Morning) Extended, easy "trot" on an e-mill. Start with 15 minutes. Increase the length of time of the trot as the days and weeks go by in the keep. Once you get to 30 minutes, give a 2 minute "empty" break. Never go more than four 30-minute sets, with 2-minute breaks inbetween. [Less is OK, depending on your dog.] Rest, rubdown, feed, water.

(Workout 2 - Evening) Long Walk. Start with 15 minutes. Increase the time of the walk as the days and weeks go by in the keep. You don't need to stop and empty because he's outside. Never go more than 2 hours. [Less is OK, depending on your dog.] Rest, rubdown, feed, water.

DAY 4 (5 - and, possibly, 6)

[Rest Day(s)]

One-to-three days of rest, depending on how the dog is acting after this Periodization. Rubdowns and feed, morning and evening. [On the day of the match, only feed your dog in the morning - and that should only be 1 cup of rice. When you work your dog twice a day, it should be at 12-hour intervals (e.g., 6am & 6pm / 9am & 9pm, etc.) the night workout corresponding to the match time.]

REPEAT CYCLE

Naturally, you start small. Maybe on his first hard day he only does one 30-second carpet mill session, followed by 5 minutes of flirt pole in the morning. The night workout might be a balls-out, 30-second windsprint on the slat mill (after a warm-up walk) and that's it. Same idea with the other days, start small. As the days and weeks go by in the keep, all levels are gradually increased to a maximum summit of workout production for two weeks straight, where not only are all individual workouts times at their hardest and longest, but you also will have maybe 2 hard days in a row, followed by 3 medium days, followed by an easy day, and then just one or two rest day(s), etc. If your dog is a barnstormer, you load up on the strength days; if he's a "Holyfied," load up on the moderate days, etc.

How much at the summit? Suppose (depending on your dog) at the summit of workout production, the hard day is 5 sets of 5 minute carpet mill runs, with one minute rest intervals inbetween sets. This is immediately followed by 15 minutes of flirtpoling. In the evening, he does, say, 5 sets of 5 minute all-out windsprints with one minute rest intervals in between. Now keep in mind that nothing is etched in stone. By this I mean, if ON YOUR SCHEDULE you have the dog up to (say) 3 sets of 3 minute windsprints - but he's totally exhausted on the 2nd minute of his 3rd set, don't force him to keep going. Stop the session before he gets totally exhausted. It is better to undertrain your dog than to overtrain him. Similarly, it is better to bring your dog in a pound over his best weight than a pound under it. Always conform your regimen around your dog - never your dog around the regimen. If you have flirtpoling on the schedule, but he won't do it, maybe you can play fetch instead. Or, in the opposite, if you're on the 4th set of 5 minute windsprints, but your dog's mouth isn't even open, you either need to get him to run faster (if he's doing windsprints he should be at top speed), or you need to increase the time to he's running to get him tired. By tired I mean the point of moderate fatigue, NOT total exhastion. This will always depend on your dog, so be prepared to make adjustments in your "schedule" based on your dog and what his workouts are telling you. Always be open-minded and flexible as to exercises, durations, and numbers of sets of exercises, so you can adapt to the particular needs of the unique animal you happen to be working, rather than try to make your dog conform to the arbitrary workout you've scribed on paper.

Okay, back to the workout. So now you're at the summit of workout prouction for two weeks straight. You need to time this two week period so that ten days before the contest, every thing gets cut in half, time-wise, but the intensity remains. On the beginning of the next cycle, the time gets cut in half again. Also, don't let your dog flirt pole or spring pole during the last two weeks, so any mouth sores can heal. Further, you want to end the keep with a 3-day rest and recuperation period for total healing and peaking out just before the contest. This will peak your dog and leave him bursting with energy come show time, if you do it right. That's all there is to a keep - and, again, the particulars vary and are up to the kind of dog you have, style-wise, and how he responds to each kind of exercise he's given.

Is this system the "only" system that can work? Of course not. I would never make such a claim. Some people, like Robert Lemm, will tell you never to strength train. Others, like the late Barney Fife, will swear by strength training. The funny thing is both philosophies have won and lost. Whatever the case, this kind of Periodization IS a system that has been proven to work. There will always be disparity in agreement as to conditioning methods, both for conditioning pit dogs and humans, and well as to what diets / supplements / steroid stacking should be given (or not given). I make no claim that this is the "only" way to work a dog - but I would bet a large sum that any pit dog conditioned like this would do as well as his genetic limitations will allow him to.

Lastly, make sure you have ALL of the following items before you put your dog's weight out:

High-quality, free-turning Slat Tread Mill.

High-quality, fairly hard-pulling Carpet Mill.

High-quality, dog-converted Electric Mill.

Government-Certified Hanging Scale (preferably digital) to get an accurate weight on your dog throughout his keep.

Government-Certified Test-Ps, one at 25 lbs and the other at 50 lbs, to calibrate the accuracy of your Certified Scale.

A top-quality, padded Harness for your dog to pull the chains without injuring his flesh in the stress areas while pulling them in his walks.

A Springpole w/ hide.

A Flirtpole w/ hide.

Enough Time in your days to devote to this conditioning process.

There are all kinds of intangibles that you will also need - pad toughener, supplements, etc. - but I have tried to provide the basic list of what is involved in bringing a match dog in right. I hope this information has been helpful.

- California Jack