Dock Diving

As mentioned in my last post, Pi has spent most of the summer learning how to swim. He had always been curious about the water, but was never much of a swimmer. Temperatures in the California central valley can reach high triple digits in the summertime, making it nearly impossible to exercise the dogs even in the evening on some days. As such, I decided it would be a great idea to teach the dogs how to swim since a good friend of mine happens to have a swimming pool.

It only took Pi a few days to learn how to swim, and only a few days after that to get enough confidence to start jumping in the pool on his own. He now swims very proficiently and without a life jacket. Because he was such a fast learner I thought it might a good idea to see if he would be at all interested in learning how to jump off of a dock. I have a lot of friends who enjoy the sport with their dogs, and since the Magyar Agar is such a rare breed it's always nice to try and reach new milestones with them and get them out in the public eye.

So, we headed down to the Doggone Dirty Dock Diving Facility in Hollister on Sunday, July 7th to give it a try. I was a little worried when we finally got down there because it was actually foggy and the weather forecast only showed a high of 85 for the day. I had no idea whether or not Pi would be comfortable jumping off a dock, let alone into potentially cooler water than he was used to.

Turns out I needn't have worried, because he took right to it once I figured out what his "on switch" was. The dock is about two and half feet off the top of the water, which is a bit intimidating for most dogs at first. But, I found that if I threw the toy out first, and then pulled him back away from the edge, giving him a running start, he was much more confident about jumping in.

Pi jumped in two waves, with his longest distance being 9 feet 11 inches, just one inch below the junior level jumping division. That jump earned him first place out of three dogs in his division. Hopefully he will continue to improve, and of course, continue to have fun.