1000 Islands DockDogs at the Kingston Sheepdog Trials Aug 7-9/09

photo by muddypawz

1000 Islands DockDogs 2nd event of the season was held at beautiful Grass Creek Park on the St Lawrence River as part of the 21st annual Kingston Sheepdog Trials. We had another successful event with large crowds on all three days, and, only about 1 1/2 hours of rain the entire weekend!!! That is newsworthy!!! The sun actually shone for 2 days in a row!!!! It was hot, sunny, and there were lots & lots of spectators. This event had lots to see & do - from lumberjacks to a raptor show:

We had lots & lots of jumping dogs and high flying action!

Ken & Luther

Our farthest travelled visitor - Cheryl Newman of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia,
with her two flat-coated retrievers - a first time DockDogger!

Bond taking a leap!

Miss Roo revving up . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . taking off . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . got it!!

Our command post for the weekend

Dog Days of Scugog, Port Perry - Jul 17-19, 2009

Dog Days of Scugog is one of my favourite DD events of the season - it is close to home and is part of an "everything dogs" weekend. This was our 5th event of this season and oh, what an event!!

Lenny placed 1st in Semi-Pro Finals with a new personal best jump (and longest jump of the weekend) of 23'4"!!!

Here is a clip of Lenny's winning jump, courtesy of Kathrene Peterson - thank you Kathrene!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBtVakOQHMI Please click on this link

Lenny's jumps for the weekend were:

Semi-Pro Finals: 21'6", 23'4"

Waves: 19'11", 20'10", 19'5", 18', 19'1", 20', 20'7", 20'8", 20'2", 20'3", 20'3", 21'3"

Speed Retrieve - 7.375secs, 7.610secs - didn't make it into SR Finals

EV - caught 5'6" placing 1st in Cadet

Lenny reaching for the bumper

One of Melissa Vig's dogs getting Big Air!

The Wildman, Cosmos, flying high - beautiful form

Hard working DD staff

Setting up the EV rig for practice

Bracebridge Summerfest - Jul 11-12, 2009

Our third event of the DD season, Bracebridge Summerfest was an exciting event and a Worlds Qualifier set in the heart of the Muskokas. This was a small event which made it very relaxed and alot of fun. There were mostly Ontario teams there, but there were also 3 teams from the U.S. competing for a chance to go to the World Championships in Stillwater, MN Jul 23-26/09.

Me & my kid having fun!

Major Tom's got his eye on that duck in the Speed Retrieve competition!

Lenny did very well at this event, placing 2nd in the Semi-Pro Finals. It was a very exciting competition as Lenny's first jump in the Finals was just 1 inch shorter, at 21' 1", than the leading team of Tom Dropik & Rocky at 21' 2". On our second jump, Lenny came back with a very respectable 21' 5", but Tom & Rocky won it with a 22' 5" jump. They sure gave us a run for the money!! We had a great time!! The weather was actually pretty decent as well - we had sunny skies on Sat & Sun while there were wicked storms, including hail, at home. We picked a good weekend to leave town!


Lenny's distances for the weekend were:

Semi-Pro Finals 21' 1" and 21' 5"
Waves 21' 8", 21' 8", 21' 1", 19' 11", 20' 11", 21' 3", 21' 9", 21' 9"

Speed Retrieve qualifying round 9.28 secs, 8.138 secs. Finals 8.005 secs, 7.621 secs placed 6th in Finals




EV grabbed 5' 8" . . . . . woohooooo!!!









Last 4 images courtesy of Jim Zelasko

1000 Islands DockDogs FIRST Event - Riverfest in beautiful Brockville, ON - Jul 1-5, 2009

Welcome to Ontario's 2nd DockDogs Affilliate Club - 1000 Islands DockDogs - covering Eastern Ontario, and . . . . . . our very first event . . . . . Riverfest, Brockville, ON !!!!
Huge thanks have to go out to Karen Larocque who made the dream to have a 2nd DD club in Eastern ON a reality. Huge thanks also to her husband, Mark, who has been involved every step of the way and been a very, very big support to Karen. All of the board members have worked very, very hard to make 1000 Islands DD a thriving new club and our first event a resounding success!!! Woohooooooooooo!!! Brockville, Kingston, and Ottawa loved us!!!! And, they want us back next year . . . .so mark you calendars . . . . . Riverfest 2010 . . . Jul 1-4 !!

Board Members - BR: Heather, Kelly, Karen, Judy; FR: Cathie, Chic, Stephanie

Also pictured: Larry (DD Nat'l Rep), Rachel (Stephanie's Mom), Riley (Kelly's son)

I think Blockhouse Island in downtown Brockville has been one of the MOST beautiful & picturesque venues for a DD event ever!! The St Lawrence river on one side and a stunning yacht club harbour on the other . . . what better place for a DD event than to be surrounded by water!!

You can see the St. Lawrence River in the background

We had a huge crowd on Canada Day - the first day of our event! The clear water in the pool came right out of the St. Lawrence!

Huge freighter going by on the St. Lawrence River

I'm sure I speak for the other board members when I say that we were fairly nervous about our first event being 5 days, but it went better than expected and we all had sooooo much fun!!! From the huge crowds on Wed, Canada Day, and Sun, the Finals, to the rain in the days in between and even a micro-burst, which was as close to a tornado as we would want to be, everything ran very smoothly. Participants had lots of practice time; they were able to have one-on-one instruction with Heather McLeod, our DD certified Sportmutt trainer, and there were lots & lots of personal bests achieved over the course of the event.

Roo went off the dock for the fist time on the first day of our event. We tried to coax her off after her toy, but then decided she might better jump off after Lenny. So, we brought Lenny up on the dock, threw the toy for him, then for Roo, and on the third try . . . .off she leapt!! She was positively hooked after that - you couldn't keep her away from the dock - she LOVES dock diving!! She achieved a personal best jump of 9' 4" and placed 2nd in the Novice Finals as well as earning her Novice Title.

Roo leaping off the dock in her first-ever competition

Chic achieved a new personal best jump of 13' 10" and placed 6th in the Junior Finals.

Air - borne Chic!!


This was our third event of the season and Lenny had a very good week. He placed first in Masters Finals with a 22' jump. His BA jumps for the week were:
18' 7", 22' 6", 20' 6", 19' 3", 20' 8", 20' 4", 19' 9", 22' 10", 21' 1", 21' 8", 20' 8", 22' 1", 21' 4", 22'1"

Speed Retrieve: 7.75 secs & 7.14 secs in Heat #2; Finals - 6.89 secs & 7.62 secs for a second place finish

In Extreme Vertical: Lenny grabbed 5'2" for a 3rd place finish

Here are some pics from the week:

Blockhouse Island, Brockville, ON

Set-up day - the day before the event begins

Registration, Information, Raffle tent - courtesy of Riverfest management

Our Ribbons

Of course, we had to have cake to celebrate our 1st event!!

Riley & Garrett squeeging the dock in the pouring rain - this was shortly before the micro-burst

After the micro-burst . . . . . that was our announcer/judging tent

Some of the banners from the dock nearly landed in the St. Lawrence River!

Some of the competitors:

Mark & Bond . . . . . yea, Bond jumped!!!

Karen Sandford's little dog, Rigby . . . . Rigby played it safe and always wore his life jacket



One of Melissa Vig's dogs flying high

Gary Goyette's dog, Maiah, looks like she can walk on water

Maiah flying after her toy



Paul & Rudder

Stephanie & Phoebe, the flying beagle



This shot is during tear down - with a beautiful full moon reflecting off the St. Lawrence River

Following is a music video put together for 1000 Islands DockDogs by Dale C. Elliott of Brock News set to an original song written & performed especially for 1000 Islands DockDogs by the local group Trance Pose - Dan Schaafsma & Mike Willie. We cannot thank these people enough for all they have done for us - thank you guys!!! This video shows all 3 disciplines of DockDogs - Big Air, Extreme Vertical, and Speed Retrieve.

Note: Lenny can be seen at these time intervals in the video: 35 seconds, 1min 35 secs, and 1 min 57 secs; Chic can be seen at 1 min 12 secs

Please click on the link below . . . . . . enjoy!!

http://www.brocknews.ca/rockthedockvideo.html

Riverfest was a blast . . . . we can't wait for 2010!!!