[Woodstockthe3rd]

Hey gang, its been a while since I have posted, but I was wondering what the general population thought about dock Diving.

I am thinking about getting my boy into dock diving. He loves the water, great at retrieving, Fast, and gets a nice distance on a long distance jump. He jumped clear across my 11ft. living room once.

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any other doberman that do dock diving. I would love to talk about some tricks or techniques that they have or some pit falls they have encountered. I have been thinking about starting this for about a year, but to find a doberman dock diver is nearly impossible (then I remembered DT!). I would love to get him in this because it would be great to have him in a lower impact sport. He loves to swim and jump so why not combine the two.

What are your opinions?

 

[StarlessSkye]

I don't do Splash Dogs with my doberman (Logan melts in the water!) but my malinois LOVES water. She is in it when it's snowing, when it's sunny, doesn't matter when. It's a lot of fun and the only techniques I know of are the two sending methods.

I send my dog by having her wait at the end of the dock and then walk to the end, release and throw as she gets close. This helps propel her and she sees it so she knows where to aim. The other version we have tried is throw it and restrain her, then back up, get her all worked up and released.

Other tip I can provide is to try a free splash or pay for practice runs so that you can show them in and out of the pool. My girl will go in and out of lakes and pools but the ramp took her a little to get used to. Once she figured it out it was fine it just took some time to play and show her. Non scoring events also let you practice how to throw your item and see what works.

Other thing I can say for sure is to make sure he is comfortable in pools where it's hard to see the bottom. I practice in a lake with a small dock and it took more work getting her in a clear pool. She also needed to investigate the big drop at the event before she figured everything out.

As far as dobermans jumping I have seen a few. We have a red around my area that is a crazy water dog. A few weeks prior to my first fun event the doberman had just had its breed record broken! Not sure who it was but it was further Southern California from me.

Good luck! It's a TON of fun in the summer when other events are just too hot to attend, lol.

 

[Adara]

Some dogs who love to swim and jump do not loveto jump OFF something say into a pool or lake Then others take to it easly.

I think there are a few dock diving Dobes on this list. Flirt doesn't swim well enough My vizslas enjoy it though and it took them a bit to get used to jumping off something into water.

My biggest complaint with dock diving was the out of control dogs and not so watchful owners at the ONE event I went to. It may not be like this at all events so I don't want to generalize. I saw too many "close calls" with aggression with dogs all jazzed up and owners having zero clue how to handle their dogs.

 

[StarlessSkye]

My biggest complaint with dock diving was the out of control dogs and not so watchful owners at the ONE event I went to. It may not be like this at all events so I don't want to generalize. I saw too many "close calls" with aggression with dogs all jazzed up and owners having zero clue how to handle their dogs.

This happened at the fun event I went to. A lot of the dogs were from random pet owners who let their out of control labs and goldens just fly up the butt of the dog in front of them. We had a friend who refused to come out with her Dutchie because of this. Good news about the practice jumps is that you can watch the others and how they handle and ask someone there to explain etiquette. For me it was explained by my friend and it was all common sense stuff. You'll always have those people who are just clueless so if your dog is not very forgiving of certain genders or breeds it's always good to assume a very cautious eye around you for anyone who may be like this. My method is to just walk away from people and be very firm, "keep your dog away from mine, please, he is NOT friendly with other males! Give me space."

 

[Adara]

. You'll always have those people who are just clueless so if your dog is not very forgiving of certain genders or breeds it's always good to assume a very cautious eye around you for anyone who may be like this. My method is to just walk away from people and be very firm, "keep your dog away from mine, please, he is NOT friendly with other males! Give me space."

All 3 of mine are dog friendly but I won't put them in bad situations. If I spend half my time protecting them from stupid owners, then the fun level goes down for me, my stress level goes up and then my dogs have less fun. The bneefits have to outweigh the risks for me. Since it was something we did "for fun" - it wasn't worth it (in our area).

We occasionally run into an owner like this at agility but it's not the norm. I dont' have to worry all the time about the dog next to me.