Dock Diving: Jake's Favorite New Hobby

Watch out Spitfire, Jake is bringing his A-game to a pool near you.

If you’ve never heard of dock diving, you’re in for a treat! Quarantine sparked many new hobbies to help pass the time and with a rambunctious pup in a one-bedroom apartment, we were looking for anything to help tire him out. Somewhere along the lines of googling for dog-friendly parks and lakes, we stumbled upon the sport of dog dock diving. If you’ve been following our journey of welcoming Jake into our lives via Instagram, then you know that swimming is his absolute favorite activity. Combine swimming with retrieving a bumper and you have Jake’s favorite new hobby.

Sounds awesome! So what IS dock diving? Essentially, exactly what it sounds like! It’s a canine sport in which dogs are enticed by their favorite toy to run the length of a dock & leap as far out over the water as possible to compete for the furthest height or distance traveled. If you’re interested in trying dock diving with your pup, check out the official website for North America Diving Dogs, NADD.

How it works: there are two divisions on which judging is based. The lap class (small breeds under 16”) and the open class (larger breeds like the labrador & malinwal). Jake jumps in the open class division which has a title ranking system that spans from 9’11” all the way up to 28’+!

Does Jake have a title? Yes! Jake earned his Master Division title (DM, Dock Master) in our first competition in West Palm Beach. A DM jumps 20’00” to 23’11” (!!!). To earn a division title, a dog must accumulate 5 qualifying jumps within one division. Each qualifying jump earns a pretty blue ribbon & once you’ve earned a title, a large show ribbon is rewarded.

Are there other NADD competitions? Yup! If your dog can’t jump for distance, no worries, you can compete for height in Air Retrieve or speed in HydroDash. Both divisions have their own title rankings systems.

What we’ve been up to lately: training any chance we get, earning titles & adding to our ribbon collection - we now have eight!

This past weekend we competed in our second dock diving event in New Jersey - a regional qualifier for the NADD Regional Championship - and although we were really there for fun, our fingers & paws are crossed to be on ESPN next October for the NADD National Championship!