Vocabulary

Here's a short vocabulary list for those of you new to the wonderful world of dock diving dogs!  Terms are arranged alphabetically.


Big Air (aka BA): The most familiar form of dock diving. BA measures the horizontal distance a dog achieves when running and jumping off of a 40' long dock.  Distance in measured in feet from the end of the dock to where the base of a dog's tail enters the water.  The world record is currently 28'10".


Chase method: A technique that involves putting the dog in a stay on the dock, releasing him, and then tossing the toy so that the dog "chases" it off the dock. Often works best when the dog has a chance of catching it in mid-air.
 
Dock diving: The sport this blog is about. ;) In its most basic form it involves a human tossing a toy into the water for a dog to retrieve from the dock surface.  In competition it may include measuring distance from dock to the base of the tail as it enters the water, the speed with which a dog retrieves a bumper held at the end of a dock diving pool, and/or the height a dog reaches to grab a bumper suspended above the water.

DockDogs: My preferred dock diving venue! Splash Dogs, UKC, and Ultimate Air Dogs are other venue options.

Extreme Vertical (aka EV): The category of dock diving that involves seeing how high a dog can jump for a bumper suspended 8' off the end of the dock and above the water's surface.  The height is measured from the top of the dock to the base of the bumper.  The world record is currently 8'0".


Iron Dog: Teams that compete in BA, SR, and EV at the same event accumulate points to determine the top overall dog, often referred to as Iron Dog competition.

Place and Send: A technique involving tossing the toy into the pool before setting the dog up and sending him to jump.  This is often the method of choice for dogs new to the sport since it does not require a stay like the Chase method does.

Pond event: A competition that is held in a location with a natural body of water.

Pool event: A competition that uses an official DockDogs dock and freestanding pool.

Pop: A term that describes the height (or lack thereof) a dog achieves as he pushes off at the end of the dock. An optimal pop for a given dog should result in longer jumps in Big Air.

Speed Retrieve (aka SR): The category of dock diving that measures how quickly a dog can retrieve a bumper held at the end of the dock diving pool.  Dogs are set up at the 20' mark on the dock and released after a countdown or light signal.  The world record is currently 4.62 seconds.