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Enthusiastic dock jumpers are out for a doggone good time

Jim Morris/Staff Loralynn Hickey of Clayton and her dog, Tug, at the Buckeye DockDog competition at last weekend's Dayton Hunting & Fishing Show.

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By Jim Morris, Staff Writer 1:27 AM Sunday, January 17, 2010

DAYTON — Tug came down the runway at full speed. His handler, Loralynn Hickey of Clayton, encouraged him all the way.

And then, just as Tug reached the end of the dock ... he stopped.

He paced back and forth, wagging his tail and offering little yelps.

And then he jumped into the water, swam over to the toy Hickey had thrown in earlier and happily swam it back to the dock.

Tug’s official jump: 2 feet, 6 inches.

Well, there’s always next time.

Tug, a 6-year-old golden retriever, was participating for the first time in a competition held by the Buckeye DockDogs when the three-year-old group came to the Dayton Hunting & Fishing Show last weekend — 40-foot dock, water tank and all.

There were dogs from all over, including Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and all corners of Ohio.

There were goldens, Labs, Weimaraners, border collies, German shorthairs, Chesapeake Bay retrievers, flat-coated retrievers and Australian shepherds. They all came to see which dog could jump the longest and highest.

That’s what DockDogs do — they jump from the dock into the water, chasing a toy. Last weekend some jumped more than 20 feet. The world record is 28 feet, 10 inches. Tug’s longest: 4 feet, 6 inches.

“I think he will be a good jumper, once he understands the game,” Hickey said. “He’s a strong swimmer and if you throw a stick into a pond, he’ll run right in after it. I think he just doesn’t quite know what to make of the drop-off of the dock.”

Tug is more than a DockDog. He has participated in agility trials, but even more important than that, he is a therapy dog at Learning Tree Farm on South Union Road. Hickey is on the staff there and takes care of the animals.

“We bring children out from the city who have never been to a farm,” Hickey explained. “When they get there, some kids are afraid of dogs, but not so after they’ve been around Tug.”

Buckeye DockDogs started in 2007. The national organization, DockDogs, is in its 11th year.

The sport went almost totally unnoticed until it was used as a filler event at ESPN’s Great Outdoor Games several years ago. Since that national exposure, the sport has grown. There are more than 100 competitions nationally with four to five of them in Ohio.

You can learn more about the jumping dogs at dockdogs.com or buckeyedockdogs.com.

“There are several things that go into a good jumper,” Buckeye DockDogs board member Missy Jordan said. “Speed is one and they have to have pop — that’s what they call it when the dog actually leaves the dock. And the dog has to have good toy drive; they have to focus on the toy and want to get it and bring it back right now.”

“Any dog can be part of it,” added board member Jennifer Zelasko of North Royalton. “There is no discrimination against any breed. We even have had three-legged dogs jump.”

Jordan often enters her Boston terrier that once jumped 14 feet, 7 inches.

“It’s just a lot of fun. I’m having fun and you can tell Tug is, too,” Hickey said as she looked down at her excited dog with his tail still wagging 10 minutes after he got out of the pool.

It didn’t matter to Tug that he only jumped 4 feet, 6 inches. Not one little bit.

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2409 or  jmorris@DaytonDailyNews.com..

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