FUNDAMENTAL PRIORITIES – Dog Dock diving is an agility discipline that serves as positive energetic and psychological outlet by recreating/mimicking natural hunting, retrieving,herding or any other play or working scenarios used in dog training. It improves and supports not only the athleticism, fitness and mental well being of the animal but also the ability and skill levels of the handler, the bond and communication between two partners engaging in a sport. For the human part it is therefore essential to understand risk exposures, training approaches, purpose and goals of exhibitions and to assess – with the best knowledge possible – rules,regulations and operative conditions of the offered environment they are about to expose their animal to.
It is imperative to understand the body mechanics and language of the dog, read their expressions during training/performances and to apply correct judgement towards skill and tolerance levels (outside conditions, water temperature, swim ability, jump amounts) to not only do right by the animal but to do the often quite challenging ethical handlers responsibilities justice – under any circumstance.
No exhibiting animal shall solely serve as a tool or purpose of selfish human interest nor is it plainly to be used to monetary capitalize from it’s performances at any cost.
Integrity, Knowledge, Training skills and ongoing self improvement and education are the foundation to represent a great animal sport correctly to the public eye.
AKC TITLES ON SALE – when commercial interest promotes mass consumption, lowers the quality of the sport, endangers soundness and well being of animals and opens the gate for sandbaggers.
One of the large entities that host dock diving events on national levels and is also an AKC affiliate, offers a very unique model to qualify for their main annual final event featuring the North American or US dock dog diving championships. One way to get there is a very simple accumulation of 30 (thirty) jumps within a designated division or 15 (fifteen) jumps in a special discipline – Air retrieve or Hydro dash. Within a current season or a sequence of those. Jumps do not expire. The actual performance only matters by staying within the margin of the division the dog is ranked at. Basically, all one has to do is pay up for and complete the entries – 840 dollars within a season at minimum for distance jumps or 420 dollars for a special discipline plus travel of course. Whether you are at the low end or consistently middle of the pack does not matter, you pay and are on your way. And eventually hope for a burst of talent and energy (or knowingly have prepared for such outcome using the title card wisely) to get a final slice……if that even matters.
The business logic of that system is not only very revenue friendly creating gigantic fields, with just glad to be here folks, at finals at 75 dollars a pop – it in fact designs way too large overflows to effectively manage the traffic at those Nationals, which then leads to non-appropriate conditions for all teams involved. It also caters to limited or non-competitive dogs and the emotional stage of their handlers. The AKC will recognize the very simple fact that someone launched their animal thirty times (that number can go in the hundreds) of a dock in a pool and issue a credential of outstanding performance, that can get framed and pinned to the wall – for a twenty-dollar extra fee. The bragging rights of the engaged human – truly a dog never ever cares about a title certificate nor does it know what level of venue it is at – to have been part of the US Championships, having qualified or competed at those, are of superior ideological and emotionally rewarding value. Winning even when loosing seems all that matters. One can see very clearly through the overall company strategy making the availability and possibility of direct qualifications – you win and you are in – or ranking criteria’s extremely difficult by limiting entries (only ONE per qualifier where others offer FOUR but absolutely no title option) or allowing only the top ten of the seasonal final field channeling the vast majority of competitors towards the title route. Now you may ask: WHY IS THAT ALL THAT BAD?
SOUNDNESS & WELLBEING – of the main actor, the dog. The starting allowance age of a puppy eligible to jump with that organization is SIX months. Yes – SIX months dropping of a 2 and a half ft dock chasing after an obstacle of desire being energetic, playful, willing and seemingly in need of a serious work out. Needless to say, that the maturity level of dogs circulates around 12 to 18 months of margin and larger, heavier breeds can even take longer. There is no daily limit to entries available, on the so-called cluster shows one can jump four times a day – twice plus eventual practice – which at best ends up with 48 attempts, of which 16 will count towards a title, actively jumping daily during a four-day event – which those mostly are. That excludes possible try it jumps. Younger dogs undergo here serious repetitive risk exposure to slipping, sliding and foremost severely challenging body impacts – there is still a huge deficit in proper coordination and balance and not much of self-preservative judgement. Bones, joints and soft tissue are still undergoing growth spurs and firming up procedures, mildly strengthening exercise with caution would be the proper way to go. I have seen a Vizsla at a breed show approximately 7 months of age jumping sensationally into the twenty-food range, not once or twice. Every break there was between rounds the owner paid a try it and jumped, over and over again thrilled by the spectator’s attention without any real training goal in mind. There was a case of a young dog with milder form of hip dysplasia clearly coming down the dock three legged, operators fully aware of the fact, not pulling the dog or trying to make the owner aware. Might be bad for business! Once one title is accumulated, the dog will eventually be moved on to the next discipline collecting more jumps. Even the hall of fame nomination and criteria circulates – you guessed it: around the number of jumps leading to excellent title VIII. Yes, there is such a thing. Compressed risk exposure for any animal through a human, chasing merits over collecting jumps at an obsessive pace without any real true performance value, leads to higher amounts of serious injuries, to using up animals at very young age and estrange the handler from reality. Not properly conditioned and physically unfit dogs at any age undergoing the “collector item” mentality of their owners can be severely damaged – quickly.
Quality of the sport – US Championships feature the very best of the country. They are the ultimate reflection and most transparent outing the interested public gets to see. Not the whole football league buys their way to the Superbowl. There is a selective process in place supporting the quality of competition and also the conditions under those are being held. The only way to get to finals must be a direct qualifier, a seasonal final standing or a win at an event final. Boring huge fields with rather limited looking jumps are a turn off and nobody truly wants to sit and wait for decades to come, to see their favorite team on life stream. Huge numbers of participants with only two docks available (2019 finals in Orlando) lead to stressful 90 seconds a dog practice, getting lost not finding the pool exit and distressed acting animals on display for the world to see. The handling of a rather sensitive animal, that requires proper warm ups, decent practice time to get just used to the environment, or just needed to get off the ramp to simply being able to know where the “emergency” exit is become at time a mission impossible. Less truly is more proper advertising for a great sport.
Sandbagging – some handlers will no longer pay any attention to the physical, emotional and actual real-time performance level of their dog. They get to go Nationals with an at times zero competitive animal. But than there are more tricky owners going this route that truly happened – they qualified their dog at an around seventy jumps annual level averaging roughly 18 feet to never excel above that number, to then at finals out of a sudden being very competitive, top scoring at the high 19 feet mark. It is by definition very possible to work with positional placing or toy placement to control and manipulate actual length scores and keep the number in the middle of the pack. The large number of outings would create the impression that that is truly the best the dog can do. Interesting however in that particular case is that when the exhibition happens at a national qualifier or the championships there is always some form of a notable almost miraculous outburst and performance increase catapulting the team in serious contender levels. Might it be just that the dog knows of the prestige it is about to receive, WINNING? Also, in a much longer time frame this particular handler might even end up being a hall of famer – completed up to some 500 jumps or better in that same division going to Nationals every year until the end of days using titles.
The title qualification modus lacks transparency after all, it truly puts the well being of some animals in real jeopardy and opens the door for questionable show strategies. Also, from an American Kennel Club (AKC) recognition stand point the true value of the certificate is rather on the very low end of selectively accrediting individual dogs for rather outstanding accomplishments. It basically states that the particular animal was able to jump tens of dozens of hundreds of times from a dock in a pool without any comparison of true performance, based on valuable standards. Just imagine getting a title for Fido jumping in your pond every day retrieving his beloved stick, taking 30 short video clips and off you go to Nationals being an excellent water jumper. Those practices do NOT support a productive process trying to improve the quality of training, shows, breeding or whatever other intention comes with that and must be seriously revisited not only to create a better concept but to also maintain superior integrity when it comes to agility performances.
US Championships, medals, ribbons and Titles are something very special, something that underscores performances of value and one should get there demonstrating masterful art and skill. As of today, a triple contender in watersports gets zero titles despite being a fully finished dog doing all disciplines – no credential here. Throwing classical principles totally over board, creating mass consumption incentives at dramatic discounts where the true sport no longer matters cannot be the new mission statement for a nationally and internationally recognized organization like the AKC – in particular not when the profit is made through animal performances. There are much better ways of creating revenue, they just require in depth thoughts distant from plain commercial interest. Class matters here – Don’t forget the dogs!!
