Lab(s) of the Moment

 
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Written by Amanda Frelke, thecrew@sportmutt.com   
Monday, 27 March 2006
Image
courtesy John Dyar Photography
In the world of Big Air dogs, the Labrador Retrievers — black, yellow, and chocolate — certainly have the competition by sheer numbers alone! Big Air is a rapidly growing sport across the nation and there are competitive events popping up everywhere for interested handlers and their dogs. Three great sites to check out are www.splashdogs.com, www.dockdogs.com, and www.superretrieverseries.com. These three groups are the leading organizations that are dedicated to bringing this sport great exposure for the interested public. How do Labrador Retrievers fit in? Sheer numbers. When looking at the history of DockDogs, the first year of this sport saw about 30 dogs nation-wide competing. Today those numbers are well over 3000 dogs. Labs make up at least 65 percent of that database. From the top rankings of 2005, eleven out of the top twenty dogs competing nation wide were labs. In the rankings for this competitive year (October, 2005 to October, 2006) and as of November, 2005, out of the top twenty dogs in the nation — the labs make up ten of those dogs. The dog that previously held the world record for three years was a male black lab by the name of Little Morgan, owned by Mike Jackson of Shakopee, MN. The world record before Little Morgan was held by a female yellow lab, Haley, owned by John Kline of Bloomington, MN.

dean_and_wylie.jpg
photo courtesy John Dyan Phography

Currently, the world record of 28 feet 10 inches is held by a coonhound-grayhound mix named Country owned by Kevin Meese of Fredericktown, PA. However, the top three dogs nipping at Country’s heels to take his place and break that record are labs. Interestingly enough, Gunner, owned by Mike Ziler, WI, is a black lab, Wylie, owned by Dean Skillman, MI, is a yellow lab, and Jack, owned by Darrell Clavier, LA, is a chocolate lab. These labs have all their bases (and colors) covered for the task at hand. These three dogs cover the span of three years old to six years old. But don’t let those age ranges fool you into thinking that an older dog can’t compete and keep up with the younger crowd. There is a ten year old dog in New Prague, MN, named Tucker, owned by Tom Dropik, that jumped his personal best score of 23 feet 4 inches at the age of nine and a half years old at a DockDogs competitive event held at a Ducks Unlimited venue in Oshkosh, WI in August 2005.

al_and_max.jpg
photo courtesy John Dyar Photography

A general rule of thumb may be: If you’ve got a lab in Big Air, you’ve got serious potential. In other upcoming articles, we’ll take a closer look at the labs in Big Air and their stories. We’ll also track another new “water” dog sport that was born out of Big Air called “Extreme Vertical.” Keep tuned and get those labs ready for the water!
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