STARKVILLE — The crowd in the Junction grew quiet Saturday afternoon as 7-year-old All-American dog Boom Boom prepared for her dive into the pool.
Boom Boom’s owner, Laura O’Donnell, placed the dog as far back on the dock as she could. She kept both hands on either of the excited dog’s sides, shouting, “Ready!”
Seconds later, O’Donnell’s hands snapped away from the dog, and Boom Boom flew through the air toward the apparatus hanging over the pool 16 feet from the dock’s edge. The pup caught the bar in her mouth and landed in the water, and the crowd erupted into cheers.
“It doesn’t matter what size they are, or how far they jump,” O’Donnell told The Dispatch following Boom Boom’s victory. “To just watch them do it and see how much fun they have doing it is really (the best part).”
Boom Boom was one of more than 40 competitors from across the country that came to Mississippi State University on Saturday for the American Kennel Club Diving Dogs Premier Cup, presented by Cosequin and televised on ESPN.
Dogs competed in two disciplines Saturday: air retrieve and distance. In the air retrieve discipline, Boom Boom’s forte, dogs catch an apparatus in their mouths as they leap through the air at farther and farther distances. In the distance discipline, dogs jump as far as they can from the end of the dock, and judges determine where the base of their tail breaks the water.
Steve Powell is the owner of North American Diving Dogs, a titling program recognized by the American Kennel Club that brought the pool and other equipment to MSU. The organization has 80 training facilities across the United States and Canada, along with six mobile docks it uses across the country.
North American Diving Dogs also holds hydro dash competitions, testing dogs’ speed in the water. Powell said generally, if a dog loves one of the three events, they can be trained in the other two as well. He said watching the dogs compete is “amazing.”
“(The) part that I love the best is just watching the ways that the dogs and handlers interact,” Powell said. “I like watching the dog learn that it likes this sport. There’s just all of a sudden this joy that they and the handlers feel.”
Distance traveled
O’Donnell has been training her dogs to dive and compete for about 11 years, and she brought Boom Boom from her home in Morris, Pennsylvania to enter the premier cup. But while O’Donnell started training her dogs to jump into the water on a vacation, others had their own reasons for getting into the sport.
Danielle Snyder brought her Borzoi, Talia, to the competition Saturday. Snyder recently moved back to Mississippi from Texas, where she started training her dogs to dive 10 years ago.
“Texas summers are like 115 degrees … so I wanted something fun to do with my dogs while it was too hot to exercise them any other way,” Snyder said. “And I actually breed Borzoi, and one of my puppy owners that lives in Florida started doing dog diving and said ‘it’s so fun, you should try it.’ That was almost 10 years ago, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
While Talia shied away from the water on her first dive, she successfully dove 20 feet, 2 inches on her second attempt in the open division of the distance competition.
Kelly Dolan brought her Cocker Spaniel, Tate, to the competition from Houston, Texas. She originally trained Tate to swim due to fear of hurricanes, she said, but then Tate started diving off of a dock two years ago and loved it. Over time, a trainer has helped improve her dog’s skills, and she’s started to travel around the country for competitions.
Tate dove 16 feet, 2 inches, a fierce competitor in the lap dog division of the distance competition.
“I love the time I get to spend with my dog, my good friends that I’ve met and other people that love their dogs and just all the camaraderie out here,” Dolan said.
Kevin and Denise Zondlak brought their black lab Whiskey from Michigan to compete in the premier cup. Neither had ever been to Mississippi before, but the couple – empty nesters – have been traveling and entering their dogs into diving competitions for less than a year, with great success.
“We had a dog that was full of energy, so somebody suggested once, ‘take him dock diving,’” Kevin said. “We went to the dock diving once, and they said they have a competition that weekend. We went to the competition and he placed for regionals. Then at regionals, he placed for nationals. And then when we got to nationals, he jumped over his division. So, he got disqualified because he went too far last time.”
While Whiskey was not the dog they took to nationals, the dog gave it his all in the distance competition, jumping four feet longer than his personal best with a whopping 29 feet, 3 inches traveled.
“He loved the crowd,” Kevin said. “The crowd was great. And I think that’s what made him do his big jump.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 48 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
