Dock Dog Wannabe

[wems2371]

Just sharing a quick clip. We took our year old gsp to a cousins farm pond last weekend to get in some more swim time at a new location. When we arrived, about 2 dozen Canada geese jumped into the water and swam out to the opposite side. Roxi was curious and started swimming out after them, casually tooling around the pond. Then we went over to the dock and attempted her very first dock dives. The video is only 2-3 minutes long, and I believe I only missed videoing one of her jumps. As you can see, she caught on quick and maybe a little Dock Dog action will be in our future.

I was at the Dock Dog site today, and learned that besides distance jumping, they also have a "vertical height jump" contest involving a bumper and a "speed retrieve" contest. Looks like fun. Denise

[MikeB]

That looked GREAT. Lots of potential there. She sure was having fun.

[tommyboy72]

I think it would be neat to see a pointing dog in the dock dog series. Maybe then people would see that pointing dogs are not just for hunting upland game but are true athletes and are versatile enough to compete in other sports and that they can actually be used for retrieving waterfowl as well. Nice job.

[DoubleB20]

I frequently exercise my two dogs (Vizsla and Brittany) near the river (one of the Trinity forks). There are a lot of trees and undergrowth near the river and as the dogs were running they knew the river was close so off they went for a swim. Running with full steam they jumped the bank and suddenly realized they just jumped off a cliff about 8 feet high. I went down to see and there was no way for them to get out of the water where we were. The water was deep and they were beginning to panic a bit because they couldn't get out. I tried tie up the check cord to a tree to allow me to reach over the bank and see if I could grab them, but it was too far down. The area was really brushy and I couldn't see any place for them to get out. I ran down river about 50 yards and found a flatter place where they could get out of the water, whistled and called and they eventually swam down and were able to get out of the water - very tired, but after a short rest they were ready to run again. It sure scared me for a few minutes, too. So they became cliff divers for one time, now they check the bank before they just "go for it."

[wems2371]

Thanks for the nice words. Due to fuel prices, we probably won't travel to too many Dock Dog events. It does look like there might be a few within an hours drive that we could get started with..........and get our toes wet . It looks like a fun time for the dogs. Dock Dogs had a video of the 2nd longest record holding jump on their site, and I believe it was 28'. I still can't believe it. There are other neat videos too of the different DD competitions at the link below (3 pages of them total).

http://www.dockdogs.com/index.php?optio ... Itemid=364

DoubleB20--I would have been stressed out too. I can barely swim (about 10 strokes worth before I sink) myself. At least your dogs are still willing to get in the water. Denise

[Vizsla Vince]

Dock Dogs is putting on a show @ the DuPage County Fair this week... Kinda excited to see it!

[wems2371]

Looking at your avatar Vizsla Vince, I think your dogs got potential too! Denise