In case your canine enjoys the water and loves enjoying fetch, dock diving may be the game for him. Credit score: Julia Bri Pictures
Do you’ve a canine who zooms into lakes, creeks, and rivers at first sight? Does your canine dwell for fetch and toy play? In that case, dock diving will be the sport for her.
What Is Dock Diving?
Dock diving combines leaping, swimming, and toy retrieval into one splash-filled, aggressive canine sport. Dock diving at its core requires canines to leap off a platform (or dock) right into a pool. There are three completely different occasions or disciplines in canine dock diving: distance soar, hydrodash, and air retrieve.
Distance soar requires you to throw a toy on your canine whereas they get a operating head begin and attempt to soar so far as doable down the pool. In hydrodash, canines goal to swim as quick as doable in direction of a set toy within the pool and retrieve it. In air retrieve, canines shoot to leap and seize or knock down a toy that’s fastened above the pool, gaining a number of vertical distance. Word that these occasions might have barely completely different names based mostly on the group you’re competing in.
How Do You Get Began in Dock Diving?
Dock diving is open to any breed or combine. Credit score: Courtesy of K9cation
Whether or not or not you’re desirous about competing in dock diving, just about any canine can attempt it out. In line with Bri Benton, a very long time dock diving teacher, dock supervisor, and dock competitor based mostly in Spring, Texas, puppies and canines don’t have to know learn how to swim to start studying the preliminary expertise for dock diving.
“I incorporate many foundations from other sports such as disc, agility, and flyball into my training foundations and I will focus on relationship building, confidence building, and toy drive exercises with my young dogs,” she says. “While I encourage swimming and retrieving at a young age, I generally do not start training them on the dock until they are 8 to 12 months old.”
Benton recommends discovering educated instructors in your space to check out dock diving. She additionally recommends going to native competitions to look at, study, and volunteer. “Most competitors are always happy to help beginners find training resources and competitions around their area,” she says.
When you’ve discovered a dock diving teacher in your space, you and your canine will begin with foundational coaching. Although many canines love water, they’re seemingly used to moving into our bodies of water with sloped, gradual entries like lakes and ponds. Dock diving swimming pools may be intimidating, since canines want to leap off the elevated floor into the water beneath.
Dock diving is a good way to construct a canine’s confidence and strengthen the connection between canine and handler. Credit score: Julia Bri Pictures
Kelly Roll, dock diving competitor and proprietor of K9cation canine coaching and boarding in Hudson, Colorado, says that the very best intro to dock diving entails constructing your canine’s confidence. In basis coaching, Roll says that K9cation purchasers typically get into the pool with their canine. Canines begin by coming into the water from a ramp earlier than constructing confidence to swim out into the pool and are all the time closely praised and rewarded.
“Once a dog is confidently entering the pool and sticking their face in the water to retrieve a toy, we work on a dog gaining an arch while jumping off the ramp,” Roll says. “This shows us the dog has potential to dive off the dock.” Roll says that after a canine is getting arch whereas leaping off the ramp and confidently sticking their face within the water, coaching will transfer to the dock to start to show the canine to leap off it. Canines which have a tough time gaining arch or distance could also be higher suited to hydrodash than the opposite two dock disciplines.
Coaching for the game ought to all the time embrace constructive reinforcement strategies. “We never want to pressure a dog so much that the dog is frustrated, and we definitely never shove the dog off the dock,” says Roll. “Dogs that are forced against their will to enter a pool are not allowed at competition and we do not allow it at training because it causes a loss of confidence and is just not a good way to get dogs to have fun and be confident in this sport.”
What Are the Completely different Dock Diving Organizations to Compete In?
Much like different canine sports activities like agility, there are a number of venues for dock diving competitions and determining which group to register and compete with may be complicated. In line with Benton, there are presently a number of Dock Diving organizations to compete with, the preferred being:
“Each organization offers different formats for competing as well as different titling structures,” she says.
How Do You Compete in Dock Diving?
Distance soar is simply one of many disciplines out there for dock diving canines. Credit score: Courtesy of K9cation
Every of the dock diving organizations requires a separate registration plus a registration price earlier than you’ll be able to compete at occasions. Registration charges usually sit round $30 to $35. When you’re registered, you need to use the organizations’ occasion search options on their web sites to seek out native dock competitions and enter them. Entry charges usually run about $25-$40 per soar, and pre-registration will normally get you a reduction.
In line with Benton, there are additionally tons of useful Fb teams that may put up particulars for upcoming competitions. “When in doubt, asking other competitors or trainers local to your area can be helpful too,” she says.
Unsure in case your canine is prepared for a contest but? Roll says canines are usually able to enter trials when they’re confidently and persistently leaping off the dock. Should you suppose your canine is prepared for the competitors surroundings however you simply wish to attempt it out in a extra low-stakes manner first, many dock diving occasions provide “try-its” or discounted apply runs that don’t depend for factors however permit you and your canine to get the texture for an actual trial. Strive-its are normally round $10 per splash.
Ought to I Strive Dock Diving With My Canine?
Whether or not or not you resolve to compete, dock diving could be a enjoyable exercise for you and your canine to take pleasure in collectively. “At the end of the day, this sport is all about having fun with your dog,” Benton says. “Your dog has no idea how far they jump or how many ribbons they win, they just know that they’re getting to play their favorite game with their favorite person! It is so important to never lose sight of why we compete in dog sports and that is to enjoy our dogs and bond with them on a deeper level.”
