Dog-beat-dog world
Riddick, a chocolate Labrador retriever owned by Jennifer Herdman of Blairsville, swims to retrieve his toy after his jump Saturday during the show.
Tim Kinder of Fredericktown and his dog, KC, compete Saturday at DockDogs Show at Noble J. Dick Aquatorium in Monongahela.
Sue Leabhart of McDonald and her dog, Mossy, compete Saturday at DockDogs Show at Noble J. Dick Aquatorium in Monongahela. DockDogs is an organization which hosts dog jumping and diving competitions.
Lynn Sotirake of Finleyville, walks her dog, Mia, in the pet parade during the DockDogs Show at the Noble J. Dick Aquatorium in Monongahela Saturday.
Amber Leezer of Monongahela and her dog, Bacon, are ready to walk in the pet parade Saturday during the DockDogs Show.
This photo illustration depicts Ziva, owned by Linda Torso of Ohio, flying through the air as she competes Saturday in the DockDogs Show at Noble J. Dick Aquatorium in Monongahela.
It was a three-dog day for Tim and Shannon Kinder.
The Fredericktown couple corralled their canines – Casey, Riley and Tanner – Saturday morning and embarked on the 19-mile drive downriver to Monongahela.
DockDogs, a jumping event contested globally, was making its debut in the Mon Valley at Noble J. Dick Aquatorium in Monongahela, and the Kinder creatures were en route to making a big splash.
“We’ve always had dogs,” Tim Kinder said. “I’ve never had more than one, and now we have three who are competing. We’re always around dogs now.”
There were a dozens of dogs around the aquatorium Saturday. DockDogs, a 16-year-old organization, holds shows throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. They are two-day events, featuring distance diving, extreme vertical diving and speed retrieve competitions. A large rectangular pool – about 38 feet long – is erected about 100 feet from the Monongahela River, with distances marked on the side to determine distances and winners.
Owners train the dogs for competition and accompany them to the platform – “the dock” – and urge them, hopefully, to success.
Prizes – sometimes monetary – and ribbons are awarded in different categories. These events also serve as qualifiers for the World Championships, scheduled this year for Dubuque, Iowa, in November.
Despite dreary weather Saturday, the aquatorium event appeared to be on course to being a howling success. After the rain halted shortly before noon, an audience of about 100 gathered to watch the splashdowns of dozens of pooches. Three rounds of distance diving took place Saturday, along with extreme vertical. Three more distance rounds are scheduled for today (10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m.), with the finals at 4 p.m. Speed retrieve will commence at 2:30 p.m.
Admission is free throughout the weekend.
Casey, a 4-year-old black Labrador retriever, was expected to be among Saturday’s stars. The Kinders’ first diving dog – Casey started in 2013 – was a world champion in 2014. Now, Riley and Tanner, a couple of rescues, have made the leap into competition.
Tim Kinder, a truck driver for an oil and gas supply chain company, said Casey stoked his interest in DockDogs – one he transferred easily to his spouse.
“It’s contagious. I used to be a spectator,” Shannon said, laughing. She prepped Riley and Tanner for this event.
“This is a lot of fun,” she added. “Any dog can do it, if it likes to play fetch. It gets them off the couch … and us.”
The Kinders and their canines enter about one DockDogs event a month.
They weren’t the only Western Pennsylvania team vying for dynamic dives. Lennie Boso and his dog, Toby, made the short cross-river trip from Monessen.
“This is just fun, good family fun,” said Boso, whose clan epitomized that. Seven other family members were on hand to watch Toby, who had won a DockDogs competition at Cabela’s, in Triadelphia, W.Va., two years ago.
“The dogs are so excited to see all these people,” he added.
“This is his fourth event this year,” Diane Barnes of Coraopolis said of Brodhy, a Lab.
Jim Zelasko of Cleveland lives a little farther away and is more experienced than many DockDogs dog owners. He said he has “been doing this for nine years” and has two diving dogs.
“We travel all around,” he said. “We have competed in 38 states, I believe.”
Zelasko said DockDogs evolved in 2000 from ESPN’s Great Outdoor Games series, which was later canceled.
Kristen Collinsworth of Canton, Ohio – a relative of NFL analyst Cris Collinsworth – is a fervent competitor and traveler as well. She is in Mon City this weekend and plans to vie in Frankenmuth, Mich., next Saturday and Sunday.
“Most weekends, we’re all over the United States and Canada,” she said.
Collinsworth said she met an owner from North Carolina, but that individual was not the longest-distance commuter along the banks of the Mon Saturday. Crystal McClaren of Cape Coral, Fla., most likely assumed that designation while chaperoning the most-decorated dog on the dock. Bo, a treeing Walker coonhound and Doberman pinscher mix, is a five-time world champion and current record-holder.
DockDogs was preceded in Mon City by a pooch parade, featuring – what else?
It was a noisy day along the water, and in the water, with a lot of barking, splashing, laughing and friendly bantering. A good day for anyone, or anything, with two legs or four.