What Exactly Is Dock Diving?
Dock diving is made up of two different disciplines. The first is ‘distance jumping’ where a dog leaps off a platform (dock) and competes for the longest jump. The second is called air retrieve and the dogs have to knock a bumper on a piece of apparatus. Any dog over six months of age can compete and it is open to all breeds so if you have a Pug or a Labrador, you and your dog can have a go! A team consists of one human and one dog. In formal competitions, the diving dock is at least 40 feet long and 7.5 feet wide and must have a barrier around it so that the dogs cannot jump off the sides. It has to be covered in a non-slip surface so that they get the best traction for leaping. The dogs land in a large pool of clean water and that must be at least 41 feet long and 21 feet wide. Pools are around four feet deep and measurements are made using a measuring banner.
Spitfire the Champion
This video shows us how an expert dock diver does it! We see Spitfire the whippet, handled by 14-year-old Sydney Mackey, break some records. First up is the Big Air jump and Spitfire covers 30 feet and five inches before splashing down into the pool. Next comes Extreme Vertical where Spitfire leaps eight feet and four inches into the air to touch the bumper. Then in the Speed Retrieve it takes Spitfire just 3.864 seconds to retrieve the target object. With a final score of 3218.89 Spitfire breaks the Iron Dog word record at the Clark County Fair in Ridgefield, Washington State. We know that whippets are extremely fast dogs but this is on another level! It takes a lot of practice and a very special dog to achieve this level.
