Cottage Life Show

What can I say?!! The Dock Dog event at the Cottage Life Show this year (Mar 28-30) was amazing!! What a blast! It was soooo much fun!! And this in spite of the "No Barking" rule which was laid down on Saturday . . . . yeah, right . . .this is a dog event . . .dogs bark!!!

Lenny did AWESOME!!!

Here are some pics of Lenny from his first ever EV Competition on Saturday. EV (Extreme Vertical) is the high jump portion of the event. A bumper is suspended by magnet on a rigging over the pool – it is 8ft out from the end of the dock & the height can range from 5ft to over 7ft. Check out the Alien Dog!!

LENNY PLACED 2ND IN HIS FIRST EVER EV COMPETITION!!!! He was competing against 3 or 4 other dogs and then it ended up being just between Lenny & Rebel, a U.S. dog. Because the other dogs had done this before & started at around 5ft 10in, Lenny had to successfully get the bumper, up to the same height & then the height went up from there as long as each dog continued to successfully get the bumper.
Lenny started at the mandatory 5 feet and jumped to 6 feet 2 inches!!! Rebel won the event with a jump of 6 feet 4 inches. Rebel also was allowed to jump again for a Personal Best score & successfully jumped 6ft 8in !!

Lenny put in an incredible effort . . . .he jumped 13 times in a row (including 4 jumps in practice right before the competition) and this was after jumping in 2 Big Air waves (the long distance jumps) earlier in the day (2 jumps in each wave, plus practice jumps). From the 5ft height, the height of the bumper increased 2in at a time.

And . . . . . . . . . . . . we may have qualified to go to the World Championships in Minnesota in July!!! (don’t know when we’ll find out for sure) Can you believe it??!!!! I am thrilled to pieces!

Here is Lenny in action - these are most of his jumps from EV on Saturday. He finally missed at 6ft 2in because he just plain ran out of steam . . . . what a HUGE effort he made . . . . that's my boy!!!

In the last 2 clips, notice the fella at the right side of the pool holding up the pup to take in all the action!

Lenny also finished 6th in the Big Air Semi-Pro Finals on Sunday and his best jump of the weekend was 19ft 5in!! He had 3 jumps of 19ft plus over the weekend. Each team gets 2 jumps/wave . . . .this is Lenny's 2nd jump of the Semi-Pro Finals. Listen for his distance . . . . I was thrilled after the effort he had put in the day before! His first jump in the Semi-Pro Finals was 17ft 7in!

In case you didn't hear the distance for his second jump, it was 19ft 2in!!! I am so proud of him!! What a guy!!! He never ceases to amaze me!!!

The competitors at Dock Dog events are such a nice group of people – very helpful, supportive, and friendly. One fella from the U.S., Bill Helfer, really helped me a lot with Lenny in EV & was really impressed with Lenny’s efforts. He thinks Lenny can jump another 6in with some training & practice. Joanne, with Rebel, was also very helpful & they were both so kind and encouraging.

So, we are next off to an event in Michigan May 24-25th . . . .the Michigan Dog Bowl; it is a qualifier for Worlds & will be a great experience for us & a chance to get in some practice.

Cathie put Chic in the wave on Sun. at the Cottage Life Show. Chic is getting a little braver about jumping. She had some good practices & jumped 3ft 9in and 1ft 6in in her waves on Sunday. Cathie was quite pleased with her b/c she actually pushed off for her 3ft + jump instead of going ker-plunk into the pool. She's an official Dock Dog!!