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Dock dogs set to compete

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By Joseph Cress, Sentinel Reporter, April 18, 2007

Last updated: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 10:45 AM EDT

Tim Kline didn’t even know it was a sport until he saw dock dogs in action.

The idea of leaping into water for distance made a huge splash with Bella, his yellow Labrador retriever.

“She was pretty darn good at it,” says Kline of New Cumberland. “She trained us. She showed us how to do it.”

A natural water dog, Bella started when she was just 6 months old and has since won a number of events.

“She has been to the world championship and qualified as a finalist in the national championship ... not bad for a 2-year-old,” Kline says.

The dogs compete by running down a 40-foot dock before taking a leap to retrieve an object thrown into a pool. Distance is measured to where the dog’s tail enters the water.

FYI

The Keystone Dock Dogs club will have a competition this weekend at the Gander Mountain store, 5005 Jonestown Road, Harrisburg.

Event coordinator Tim Kline said dogs will compete in five waves, or rounds, of competition starting at 6 p.m. Friday. There is an entry fee of $20 per wave. Contestants are asked to show up an hour before each wave.

The waves are qualifying rounds to arrive at the top 12 professional jumpers and top 12 amateur jumpers. Wave times are Friday, 6 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m.

Amateur finals will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday followed by the finals for professional jumpers at 3 p.m. An elite vertical competition, in which dogs jump for height, will follow.

Kline said all dogs are welcome, no matter the age, breed or skill level. The dogs do not have to be registered by the American Kennel Club to participate in this nationally sanctioned event, Kline said.

The event is a fundraiser for the Keystone Dock Dogs club, which has about 35 members from across Pennsylvania. “You do not have to be a club member to participate,” Kline says.

For more information, visit http://www.dockdogs.com — the Web site for the national sanctioning body.

The retrieval is Bella’s award — that and a few snacks, Kline says.

“The drive for her to do this is incredible. She just loves it. It’s play time all the time,” he says.

He adds the sport requires constant conditioning to achieve record-breaking leaps. Bella’s longest jump is 26 feet 7 inches, or about two feet short of the world record of 28 feet 10 inches set by a mixed breed dog.

Kline and Bella practice near their home, jumping off docks into the Susquehanna River. They have been joined by Jasper, a black Lab who at age 1 has been classified as a junior jumper.

Once a dog reaches 8, it is considered a veteran jumper and is scored differently.

Like Kline, Kevin Landis of Etters is a member of the Keystone Dock Dogs club His black Lab Chip was still a puppy, only 6 months old, when he started to jump into the family swimming pool.

Landis searched online and discovered Dock Dogs was a sport. Chip attended his first event in York County and did really well in his first national event, jumping 17 feet 11 inches.

Chip’s only problem with the sport is jumping into cold water. Gary Reihart is owner of the Canine Spa on Ore Bank Road just outside Dillsburg. In business six years, he opened his business to dock dog training about two months ago after installing equipment used in the sport.

“The enthusiasm and number of people getting into it is growing by leaps and bounds,” Reihart says. “This gives the dogs something else to dog besides swimming.”

Reihart says Reggie, the number one dog in the country in the extreme vertical jump, is one of about 2,200 dogs registered to swim at his facility — about 70 percent of which are Labrador retrievers.