National Hall of Fame 2024 - Cry Me A River

River is an ADBA registered Working Pit Bulldog, bred by Joan and Steve Albro. He was born on February 6, 2015. Lonna sold her laptop to pay for him, and brought him home at 8 weeks old. River has earned his name, Cry Me A River, every day since he was a puppy, as he cries and whines very loudly at feeding time. He immediately started familiarization with a weight pull harness when he got home. He progressed with his training very quickly, he's a very smart dog. He bonded very quickly to Lonna, and they have been pretty inseparable his whole life. Other than weightpull, he loves to go on walks with his mama, loves to have his chest scratched, lay in Tim's lap in the recliner, and sleep between Tim and Lonna in the bed. He has an amazing temperament, and loves to meet other people.

River has competed in weightpull in IWPA, APA (American Pulling Alliance), ADBA (American Dog Breeders Association), UPF (United Weight Pull Federation), and IDWP (Irondog Weight Pull). He has competed in 189 competitions across the 5 organizations, on every legal surface that he could compete on.

His first sanctioned competitions were at the end of the 2015-2016 IWPA season, when he was 13 months old. His retirement pull was at the 2023 APA Championships. River's best pulls were: Rails-9,150#, wheels-4,570#, and snow-2,020#.

River has earned many accolades through his career. He earned the ADBA 'ACE' title by earning his first 100 points in weightpull. He did this in just 4 events. He has earned his IWPA WD (Working Dog) on both wheels and snow, WDE (Working Dog Excellent) on both wheels and snow, and WDS (Working Dog Superior) on wheels. He has earned his APAR1-5 (APA Rails level 1 thru 5). He has earned his STAR 22 (2,200 APA points. He also earned his PRO 2 (200 points in the UPF).

River is currently 3rd in All-Time Points Earned in the 110# class of the APA.

In IWPA, at the regional level, he earned Gold Medals on wheels in the 125# class for the 2015-2016, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022 seasons. In the 2015-2016 season, he was also 6th in the 100# class on wheels. Regional Medals on snow, he earned: 2016-2017 125# Gold, 2018-2019 125# Silver, 2019-2020 125# Gold, 2021-2022 125# Gold.
In IWPA, at Championships, he earned 2015-2016 125# class Wheels 4th Place, 2017-2018 125# class Wheels Silver Medal, and 2018-2019 125# class Wheels Silver & Snow Gold Medals.

In other organizations:

2017 Irondog Nationals, River was in the 125# class, 1st on Rails with MWP and 2nd on wheels, also earning Combined MWP.
2018 Irondog Nationals, River was in the 125# class, 1st on both Rails and Wheels, with MWP on both surfaces, and Combined MWP
2019 Irondog Nationals, River was in the 110# class, 2nd place on wheels and 3rd on rails APA: 2019 110# class 4th, 2020 110# class 3rd, 2021 110# class 2nd, 2022 110# class 3rd, and 2023 110# regular class 2nd & 110# veteran class 1st.
River is now enjoying his time being a house dog.