Cowboy's a dock dog!!!

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Wow, nearly 6 and a half years old and we FINALLY got into dock diving. It's cool cause I've been wanting to get into it for so long and we finally found an event close enough.

It's CCRRAAZZYYY how fast it filled up. When I left for my cottage the pre registration wasn't ready yet. When I got back like 2 days later it was closed. So I left at 6am, arrived shortly after 9am, registration started at 11am and there was only room left for the 7pm wave confused

Luckily we still got to use the open dock slots to practice. Cowboy didn't quite understand that it was a pool at first lol



So I sent him down the out ramp and he was like aahhh, it's water.

Then he dove off no problem. But that video is on my other cam, so coming shortly.

By the time his event was up, it was pretty dark. And dad can't work his own camera... So here is his second jump, which was 7 feet even. His first jump and the one that counts was 9 feet 11 inches. Which is an inch shy of moving up to junior, which means we most likely WOULD have gone into finals but we couldn't even stay long enough to find out, let alone actually compete in it.

oops, that was the first jump. Let me just upload the second.  

[SmoothSavage]

Dock diving looks like soooo much fun! And good job Cowboy!

I wish Melon wasn't such a sissy, I can barely get him to swim.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Savage Destiny

Dock diving looks like soooo much fun! And good job Cowboy!

I wish Melon wasn't such a sissy, I can barely get him to swim.

Have you ssseeeeeennn the video of Cowboy learning to jump into water??? The dock was like, 3 inches high, and he wouldn't do it. It took a lot of positive reinforcement and a lil creative training to get him to do it. Being a swimming instructor for mentally challenged kids for a few years definitely helped lol.

Okay, here's the official dock dive, completely out of focus! I have a nice video of one of our practice slots on MY video camera, but it takes a bit longer to upload so im doing that today.  

[Shanna66]

it must be so nice to have a dog that loves water. ive never had a dog that likes to swim, though we were at the beach last week and learned that bear likes to get her feet a little wet.... so she can drink the ocean water -.-  

[SmoothSavage]

Poor Cowboy, you threw his disc out of the tank! rofl I love how his face came into focus at the end.

I may try to work with Melon to jump into the water, but that's a ways off. It was only last month I managed to convince him that swimming wouldn't result in his slow painful death!  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

ugh, I was so focused on HIM, and throwing it at the right moment so he wouldn't hesitate, that I wasn't really looking where I was throwing his frisbee LOL.

Okay, here is an actual in focuse, video, in daylight, of our practice lol.

I wanted to redo the video of teaching Cowboy not to fear the water. But I don't think I have good enough footage to bother. The way I worked with Cowboy was with a baby pool that I picked up at a garage sale. It was shallow, and plastic, and he liked to walk in it to drink. SO then I'd throw in his frisbee. And THEN, I would dunk his frisbee under, basically forcing him to get his face a bit wet to pull it out. At first, just his nose, then his whole muzzle, finally his entire face. I believe the fear of going under is why he refused to jump at first, despite enjoying swimming. Once he was comfortable dunking his whole head in. We tried again with the dock that is all of 3 inches high with my weight pulling it down. I threw the frisbee really close but JUST out of reach. Then I stood at the very very edge with him, and coaxed him by using the most annoying, high pitched excited voice I could. I pat him on the back, and clap, and scream. This went on for a good 15 minutes, and then, HE JUMPED! At which point I acted like he just won the lottery. This went on all day. By the end of the weekend, he was jumping off the weekend he was jumping without hesitation. I remember saying, he might not be a dock diver, but at least it really helped him build confidence. Then don't ya know, the next time we go to the cottage, he's taking a running start! That's when I decided I HAD to try dock diving, just to PROVE that any dog can be trained to do any sport. Luckily the pool in my very dog friendly town is open to the dogs on the last day, so he got to go off the diving board which was good practice since most first timers are really freaked at the 2 foot drop.  

[Animelover955]

Go Cowboy!

I love dock diving <3 And I want to do it with Abby, but all the places are to far out for me and the fact that I can't drive doesn't help in the least bit. The nearest practice dock is about an hour and a half away if I'm correct. But the dogs have been introduced to it when we went down to Alabama a few months back. Abby was a bit iffy because it was a floating dock and the whole idea of floating wasn't really reassuring, but she jumped multiple times and even Bo jumped, but that turned into a disastrous fail because he can't swim stare  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Animelover955

Go Cowboy!

I love dock diving <3 And I want to do it with Abby, but all the places are to far out for me and the fact that I can't drive doesn't help in the least bit. The nearest practice dock is about an hour and a half away if I'm correct. But the dogs have been introduced to it when we went down to Alabama a few months back. Abby was a bit iffy because it was a floating dock and the whole idea of floating wasn't really reassuring, but she jumped multiple times and even Bo jumped, but that turned into a disastrous fail because he can't swim stare

HAHA, poor Bo. Well this event was a lil over 2hrs away, and it was the closest one. So once you get a license it will make it easier to do more. Provided you can borrow a car lol. I dunno where I'd be without my dogmobile.