The fur flies (and drips), all in fun

These are the dogs that fly – the ones that spring from the dock and soar more than 20 feet into the air.

Like well-trained athletes, the good ones practice every day. During competition, they remain focused, determined to jump to retrieve a rubber toy.

“Ready, Daisy, go!” Kari Manning yelled, running alongside her yellow Labrador. When Manning threw a white bumper into the shallow pool, Daisy leaped immediately in pursuit. She landed with a big splash about 16 ½ feet away.

Daisy’s performance Saturday afternoon drew cheers from the crowd at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center. It also may have been enough to earn her a spot in the finals of the Dog Dock Jumping contest, considered one of the main attractions at this year’s Big Horn Outdoor Adventure Show.

On Saturday, hundreds of spectators crowded around a 40-by-8-foot pool installed in one of the fairgrounds’ buildings to witness the flying dogs.

“Good girl,” Manning cooed, as Daisy swam back to the pool’s edge. “You did great.”

Daisy, who’s 7, flunked out of pet-therapy training but later proved to be a natural when it came to sports like dock jumping. Manning’s other dog, Emmy, also did well in her first year of competition. The 1-year-old yellow Lab was able to jump more than 20 feet.

“It takes a dog with agility, a dog that has the drive to chase an object without fear,” said Manning of Spokane.

The two dogs were among more than 100 that have taken part in the competition over the last three days. Most of the canines live in Spokane or North Idaho, but some traveled with their owners from Oregon and Montana.

Not everyone did as well as Manning’s pets. Some of the dogs were able to run up the ramp but decided at the last minute not to jump at all. A few fell. Others were nudged over the edge by their owners.

“Mine failed miserably,” said Merry Boeck of Spokane, who brought two Labs and a border collie. One of her dogs, Glory, an 8-year-old yellow Lab, managed to jump, but the poor thing ended up spraining her tail.

Dozer, a sleek, 1-year-old Weimaraner, stood at the edge of the dock but had no desire to leap in the water. After the time limit of 30 seconds was up, his owner, Kati Warner of Coeur d’Alene, gave him a little push and he bounded into the pool.

“He usually loves water,” Warner said. “Right now, he’s more interested in playing with the other dogs.”

The contest was open to any dog, no matter what breed, as long as their owners brought proof of vaccination. Many of the dogs were yellow and black Labs, so Dozer and his owners couldn’t help but feel “like the red-headed stepchild,” Warner said with a laugh.

Since the competition was launched several years ago, the number of contestants has more than doubled, according to Larry Larson of The Outlook Magazine, a Spokane-based fishing and hunting publication and one of the sponsors of the annual Dog Dock Jump.

Larson advised people new to the sport to be patient with their pets and to never force them to jump. “They can be traumatized,” he warned.

“It’s all in the handler,” explained Tony Warren, owner of Magnum, a 2 ½-year-old black Lab and one of the event’s leading contenders. “Any dog can do this, even the pound puppies.”