It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Rivet the black lab! DockDogs soar again at GoPro Mountain Games in Vail

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VAIL — The sound of barking is everywhere. The loudspeaker blares a combination of music and a series of statistics.

"Rivet's last jump measured in at 26 feet, 11 inches!" At its handler's command, a fluffy streak tears down a 40-foot dock and launches itself into the air, flying upward of 20 feet into a clear blue pool. This is the DockDogs Big Air competition at the GoPro Mountain Games.

Stacy Nesting, of Monroe, Oregon, is the handler of two prizewinning pups: Rivet, whose jumps consistently classify in the Super Elite category, and Echo, who is still logging 22-foot jumps at 8 years old. Between the two dogs, this is Nesting's fourth time at the GoPro Mountain Games, and calls it one of her favorite events on the DockDogs circuit.

"There's so much to do and so much to see. It's so cool to watch all the other athletes do their thing," she said.

"Everyone got dogs during COVID, and now they’re finding fun ways to be active with their dogs. This is a great way to keep a dog engaged and smart." — Elizabeth Spencer, Denver resident and handler of Tuna

The pool for the Big Air competition measures 20 feet wide and 40 feet long and contains 25,000 gallons of water. Untrained dogs frequently balk at its edge. According to announcer Kevin Gillingham, of Sunset, Utah, dogs see the clear water as an indication that the pool is empty. Dogs in the Big Air competition run down a 40-foot-long dock and leap into the air in pursuit of a chew toy thrown by their handler. The length of their jump is measured from the dog's tail set, or where their tail connects with their body. It does not matter if the dog catches the toy in midair. How far a dog jumps determines the division they fall in: Novice, Junior, Senior, Master, Elite, and Super Elite categorizes a portion of the distance between zero and 35 feet from the dock.

DockDogs also hosts three other competitions at the Mountain Games. Extreme Vertical is a high jumping test in which dogs must retrieve a toy from a bar that starts at 4.5 feet and increases in height by 2 inches every round. Announcer Gillingham cited the outdoor world record for the high jump as "8 feet, 10 inches." Speed Retrieve is a combined run, jump, and swim competition. Dogs must run to the end of the 20-foot dock, leap into the pool, and swim to the end of the pool to retrieve the toy hanging there, all as quickly as possible. Dogs are measured on their time to reach the toy. Dueling Dogs is a head-to-head race between two dogs at a time to jump off the dock and swim through the water, the winner being whichever reaches the toy at the end of their lane first.

Denver resident Elizabeth Spencer's dog is Tuna, nicknamed the "Flyin’ Hawaiian." This is Tuna's second year at the Mountain Games, a sport she found by accident.

"We did an end-of-season pool closing celebration in Morrison. They were about to drain the pool, so they let all the dogs go in and have a good time. They had some silly competitions that are not competitive, but Tuna won almost all of them," said Spencer. She quickly realized Tuna's aptitude for these types of events. Since then, Tuna and Elizabeth have paid a weekly visit to Jasper's Splash Zone in Lafayette, where Tuna hones her long-jump skills in pools similar in size to the one featured at this weekend's competition.

"Thursday is just a warmup day. Friday is really when the competition starts," explained Spencer. While the format of the event does not change from day to day, the intensity of the competition ramps up as it heads toward finals on Sunday.

Qualifying for finals is broken down by jump-distance division, so that dogs can face appropriate competition and still participate when they jump shorter distances. Spencer, whose dog Tuna showcased jumps in the high teens on Thursday and Friday, described how this affects competition: "If your dog is hitting 25 (feet), you’re out, because there are dogs hitting 27, 28 (feet)."

Jumping 25 feet puts dogs in the Super Elite division, where it is possible for a dog to jump up to 35 feet. Meanwhile, a dog that jumps 10 feet is in competition with dogs in the Junior category, who also jump between 10 and 15 feet.

While Nesting is here to have fun, she also takes the DockDogs competition quite seriously. On Thursday, Rivet wows crowds with a 27-foot, 5-inch jump, and Echo does the same when she launches 22 feet, 2 inches. Rivet and Echo will be competing in multiple events per day throughout the course of the weekend, taking adequate time to rest between events.

On Thursday and Friday, at the end of a long day of official competition, DockDogs offers an opportunity for interested dogs and handlers to put their jumping abilities to the test. This is where the dog-loving community gathers to relax. As an introduction to the water, dogs are allowed to first walk down, then jump off the ramp that competitors typically use to walk out of the water. If a new jumper succeeds on the ramp, they are led to the competition dock, and encouraged to jump there, as well.

"It's a great way to see how dogs can be athletic," Spencer said of DockDogs. "Everyone got dogs during COVID, and now they’re finding fun ways to be active with their dogs. This is a great way to keep a dog engaged and smart."

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Nesting shared some tips for discovering and training a champion DockDog. "The first thing you want to do is make sure your dog can swim," Nesting said. "A dog that is very eager to swim and play in the water is the best place to start."

According to Nesting, the next step in training a successful DockDog does not involve a pool at all. "You want to engage the dog heavily in what is called toy drive. They have to want that toy more than anything in the world."

Finally, take that dog to a pool. "Once that all comes together, you put it in water and mix, and then you have yourself a DockDog."

More often than not, dogs at Try DockDogs do not manage to make it off the platform. Some of the time, dogs stay dry and their human handlers end up in the water, deliberately and not. But the crowd cheers raucously for any sign of success, no matter how small.

"If you have a dog that loves water, and loves toys, do it," Nesting said.

For spectators, Gillingham had the final word: "Come on down, enjoy the sun, and check out the shows."

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