What is dock diving?

​Dock Dogs is a relatively new sport to Australia, first seen at the World Dog Games in Sydney in 2008. It involves dogs jumping off a dock, into a pool, with different games testing different skills. The three games are Big Air, Extreme Vertical and Speed Retrieve.
Big Air: Essentially long jump for dogs, Big Air or “BA” involves the dogs running and jumping off the end of the dock as far as they can as the handler throws a toy. The measurement of how long the dog jumped is taken from where the base of the tail hits the water, the area of the body which would usually hit the water first. Longest jump wins. The current world record is now over 30 feet!
Extreme Vertical: Extreme vertical or “EV” is essentially high jump for dogs. A toy (bumper) is suspended 8” out and 4’6” high off the dock and the dogs are encouraged to jump to grab the bumper before landing in the water. Dogs are eliminated from competition if they can’t reach the height of the bumper. Each round, the height of the bumper is increased by 2 inches until only one dog remains. The current world record stands at nearly 9 foot high.
Speed Retrieve: In the Speed Retrieve “SR” game, the bumper is suspended a few inches above the water at the end of the pool. Handlers line their dogs up on the dock at the 20 foot mark, just behind an infrared beam. Like flyball, SR uses drag lights to signal the handler to release the dog. The timer begins when the green light comes on and any false starts result in disqualification. The speed retrieve uses elements of both BA and EV as the higher and further the dog jumps, the faster they will be able to get to the bumper. Pulling the bumper away from its holder, breaking the magnetic bond stops the clock. Fastest time wins! The current world record for SR is now under 5 seconds.
Another event, called “Iron Dog” exists which collates the dogs’ highest scores from each of the events to find an overall winner. The winner is the dog with the highest number of points!

Quick Facts

Training level required: ☆☆ (moderate)
Training type: club training/at home
Equipment cost: $ (inexpensive)
Overseeing body: Dock Dogs Australia
Minimum age for competition: 6 months
Breed restrictions: None! Open to all breeds
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What equipment do I need?

While having access to a pool or dock and a body of water to train is helpful, the only equipment you will need to compete is a crate to contain the dog between jumps, a flat collar, a 4ft (1 metre) lead and a floating toy/bumper for the dog to retrieve.

Age appropriate exercise

Dock diving is a high impact sport. We would be remiss if we didn't include a warning to pet parents about age appropriate exercise and how it applies to the sport. While the minimum competition age for dock diving is 6 months old, we recommend not using this as a guideline for when your puppy will be competing. There are plenty of great foundation exercises you can do to help your puppy's later training, however we only recommend adding the high impact parts of dock diving training (big jumps into the water from height) after the age of 18 months. This will help protect your puppy's growing joints, and help to ensure that they have a long career in the sport. ​We recommend consulting with your vet before starting training to make sure that your puppy's growth plates have closed, and that they are well-muscled, fit and healthy. 

How much training is needed?

It really depends on the dog! Some dogs, especially those who are bred to retrieve in water or those who really love to chase toys are much easier to train than others and some dogs may never really enjoy jumping into the water. 
Training a dog to not only jump in the water, but to have a big run up and then take a flying leap into the water does take more training, even with dogs who love their toy.

Titles

Currently there are no titles in the sport in Australia, so competitors compete for the love of the sport and wins in each of the different streams in the sport instead.