Dock Diving
History
The fun sport of dock diving began over 25 years ago when the ESPN Great Outdoor Games started using it as entertainment for their show. The Games showed off dock jumping on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC's Wide World of Sports and the popularity didn’t take long to catch up! It has been the fastest-growing dog sport in recent history and remains an entertainment favorite.
The first organized club was a Dockdogs club in the Midwest and that one club grew into the organization that still exists today. Dockdogs spawned many other organizations around the country and even globally with a few of them still going today and newer ones adding their own spins on classic games and events and keeping the fun spirit of the sport alive!
Games
The main attraction for dock diving competitors and spectators is Big Air, aka distance jumping, where the dog runs down the dock and launches into the water chasing a toy thrown by a handler from the dock. The dog’s distance is measured from the end of the dock to where the base of the tail enters the water. These distances are judged manually or by computer, depending on the venue in which the team is participating.
Dogs are seeded into competitive divisions based on how far they jump and these jumps can earn them titles, prizes, invitations to championships, and more - again depending on what organization they are competing in.
In addition to Big Air there are a variety of other games played within dock diving. Some involve the dogs having to catch the toy that has been thrown, others are more about setting a bumper in place and having the dogs get it. This can mean jumping out horizontally to grab it, jumping up in the air vertically, or swimming as fast as they can to grab it off the clips.
Get Started
All these games combined, plus a whole lot of happy dogs and their humans is what dock diving is all about. Whether you want your pup to pop off the dock at the lake and catch his ball or have grand aspirations of being a DockStar under the big lights, learning to dock dive with your dog is great fun and excellent team building.
Classes are forming today for a variety of skill levels. Check out our current classes offerings for more information.
