What an unbelievable weekend at the Bloomsburg Fair!  We entered Jager in his third dock diving competition, a national Dock Dogs event sponsored by Cabelas.  We arrived Friday morning to a cold, damp, dreary day.  We took a few practice runs on the dock, including speed retrieve, an event we've never tried before.  The freezing cold pool water didn't seem to bother the dogs much, even though they were all shivering.  After some debate, we decided to enter Jager in the Iron Dog, which is a point system for Big Air (long jump), Extreme Vertical (high jump), and Speed Retrieve (a 58 ft run, jump & swim timed event).

The main event for the day was the Extreme Vertical competition at 6:00 pm.  In this event, a bumper is suspended 8 feet from the end of the dock and set to ever increasing heights as the night goes on.  It started with 11 dogs and a bar height of 4' 8".  We passed on the lower jumps and entered the mix at 5' 10" which Jager nailed easily.  It is double elimination, so you have to miss twice at a given height to be dropped.  By the time the bar reached 6' 10" there were only two dogs remaining.  With darkness upon us, ice cold water, distracting lights and rides spinning in the background, Jager pulled down 6' 10" on his first attempt (while the other dog missed his first 6' 10" height).  Both Jager and the competition missed 7' 0", which meant Jager won by criteria.  As is tradition, they called the winner back up on the dock for two more attempts at any height we wanted.  I opted to try 7' again, which he got.  The crowd went wild when Jager then proceeded to tear down 7' 2"!!  In only our second E.V. competition, we brought home first place and a $100 prize, against very stiff competition (at least two competed in the world championships in July).  We always knew he could jump, but he was on fire that night!  We were elated.

We made a last minute decision to get a hotel instead of driving another 4 hour round trip, which was money well spent.  Saturday turned out to be a gorgeous, sunny day.  We talked to the president of the fair who stopped by to say hello.  This was the first time they ever had a dock dog event at the fair, and due to popular demand it is coming back again next year. 

I entered Jager in his first ever speed retrieve competition at 9:30 am.  Electronics are used to time this event, complete with lights similar to a drag race.  My reaction time was horrible (0.7 sec) compared to veteran handlers (less than 0.1 sec), but Jager still beat everyone in the class at 6.056 sec.  I would later learn this was the quickest time of the entire week.  

Later in the day, I heard the reigning 2009 World Champion Iron Dog was Jager's main competition.  I was talking to him, looking at his huge trophy that he brought back from Minnesota and noticed he had two second place ribbons hanging on it from this weekend (E.V. and speed retrieve).  Jager had both of the first place ribbons hanging above his crate!

Unfortunately I had a mental lapse in the speed retrieve finals (released him as soon as the warning light came on!) and false started.  His first run in the finals was still good enough to get 2nd place.  Luckily the Iron Dog points were already counted from the qualifying round.

I had a pretty mediocre Big Air (long jump) on Friday at 19' 6", so I entered him in another round on Saturday hoping to increase his point score (you can enter as many rounds ($25 each!) as you want and use the best distance).  With a huge tip from our friend Sandy (who entered Jager in a few jumps), I started him at exactly twice our E.V. start (32 feet instead of 40 feet from the end of the dock).  It matched his stride and he hit the end of the dock perfectly, jumping 23' 7"!  This qualified us for the Big Air finals in the Pro division.  Jager went on to place second with a final jump of 23' 0". 

When the final points were tallied, Jager came in at 3032, claiming second place and only 8 points behind the Current World Champion Iron Dog!  The winner came over to congratulate me and admitted he was nervous.  Being the only Dutch Shepherd in the crowd, Jager was quite a standout.  The announcers referred to him as the BEAUTIFUL Dutch Shepherd, and we had tons of compliments from everyone.

Jo and I couldn't have been more proud.  We knew Jager had good potential, but this weekend he showed everyone he is ready to be a contender in every event.  Our next challenge is to get him trained to sit-stay on the dock in Big Air.  He is currently jumping over 23 feet with a very flat jump and almost no "pop" at the end of the dock.  Most successful handlers will throw a toy up and the dog follows it into the air, gaining height and distance.  We hope to work on that before next season.  

Above everything, Jager's drive and passion for the sport is the most rewarding part for us.  What a great dog.  Thank you Steve!!