Andy the Flying Puppy WOW's Reno
Andy the Flying Puppy WOW's Reno
By: Joe Cox
Topics: Sports, softball, Tehachapi, Tehachapi Most adorable Pet Contest, Entertainment, pets
Posted by softballjoe Tue Aug 14, 2007 14:18:18 PDT
Viewed 515 times
0 responses 2 comments Reno- The Super Retriever Series, Splash Dogs Super Fly, competition took place at the Sports Warehouse in Reno, NV. this past weekend. There were two divisions of competition, the Amateur division for dogs jumping 18 feet and under and the Professional division for dogs jumping over 18 feet. Andy was entered in the amateur division. Ducks Unlimited was one of the major sponsors of the event. In addition to the Super Retriever & Super Fly events there were the duck calling events going on at the same time as the jumping competition. Making it very noisey for the dogs jumping.
The event finals were being filmed by the Outdoors TV Channel to be shown later as part of their upcoming TV Show about sporting dogs. Only those dogs that finished in the top 12 were allowed to jump in the finals.
Andy showed his stuff on Saturday, setting a personal best with a jump of 15'6" and followed that up with a jump of 15'3" to qualify 3rd in his division moving on to the finals on Sunday and getting the chance to be on National TV?
On the Sunday Finals it was Andy's 7 month birthday and with the newly formed "Prince Andy Fan Club" singing "Happy Birthday" to him as he sprinted down the dock and with the cameras running Andy was distracted by all the interest and his first jump was "only" 13'1", but he calmed down enough to make his final jump of 15'1" to finish 5th over-all in the Amateur Division. Andy was also clocked by the radar gun at 30mph running down the dock, second fastest of all the dogs in his division.
Andy's next event will be at the "End of Summer Bone-a-Fit: in Auburn, Ca on September 14-16th, then it's on to Oregon where Andy has been asked to show his stuff for the people in the great northwest.
When watching a SplashDog's Super Fly or DockDog’s Big Air event, people always ask how they measure the distance of the dog’s jump? This is by far the most asked question by everyone watching for the first time and I will try to answer the question:
The measurement standards among various dog-jumping events were set when DockDogs, and ESPN hosted the first Big Air Dogs event during the Great Outdoor Games a few years ago. Most other jumping events, Purina for one, still measure a dog’s jump distance from the edge of the dock to where the dog’s front feet enter the water. All SplashDogs and DockDogs sanctioned events including Super Fly and Big Air events like all the Super Retriever Series measure the official jump distance as being where the hind-end of the dog breaks the plane of the water’s surface, minus the tail. Because of a dog’s physical length this can mean a difference of 4 or 5 feet between a front measured jump (Purina's) and a rear measured jump (SplashDogs/DockDogs). A front measured jump of 20 feet, one can do the math and find the jump is actually a 15-16 foot jump using the SplashDog/DockDog standard.
The objective of the sport and of SplashDog's/DockDog's is to make this a performance competition like track and field’s Long Jump. By measuring from the edge of the dock they create a single standard from which to measure, and by measuring to the rear of the dog, minus the tail, can they measure the true distance the dog jumped without non-jump factors like how big the dog is. To make the point, think of a Irish wolfhound jumping against a 45 lb lab! Say that from the rear of the dogs both jumped the same distance, but if we used a front measured standard the wolfhound would always win simply because of its size! SplashDogs and DockDogs objective is to make this a performance sport that demands that they measure from the edge of the dock to the rear most part of the dog (not including the tail) to take away all unfair advantages not associated to the jump distance itself.
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Wed Aug 15, 2007 10:44:10 PDT
So is Andy going to be on TV? When?
Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:02:59 PDT
The show is going to be in a few months? Don't have a date. They are filming at alot of places, trying to cover all the working sport dogs. When I hear of a date will post it.
