CoolWater Chesapeakes

Well, as you know by my post below, Jessie was entered in a Dock Diving competition a couple of weekends ago. She did very well. At the end of the day on Saturday, she had qualified for 4th place in the "Amateur" division. On Sunday, however, she jumped herself out of the "Amateur" division with two jumps over 18' (18'4" and 18'8").  Going into the finals she ended up as the 1st alternate for the "Semi-Pro" division. Even though she didn't end up jumping in the finals, a photographer that was there managed to get some great photos of her jumping. I thought I'd share them.

This weekend Jessie and I entered our first Dock Dogs competition in Orlando, Fla.

My gosh, what fun! 

Jessie was very consistent in her jumping and at the end of the day, Saturday, she qualified for the finals in the Amateur division. On Sunday, however, she jumped herself out of the Amateur division and into the Semi-Pro division with two jumps over 18' (18'4" and 18'9"). At the end of the day, Sunday, she ended up as the first alternate going into the finals. Everyone showed up, so she didn't get to compete in the finals. Regardless, I don't really care. I joined us up simply to have fun -- that's what it's all about, isn't it? Jessie loved it and I loved seeing her enthusiasm for a new activity.

Not too shabby for a dog that's almost 8 years old, I say!

I haven't posted many entries lately, although I have been quite busy.

Today, I took Jessie to Lutz, FL to give her a chance to try some dock diving. Dock diving, is when dogs run on a dock and then  jump into a pool of water - typically they jump *after* something such as a ball, a wubba, a bumper etc... that's thrown by their owner/handler into the pool.

Courteous Canine in Lutz, FL installed a competition sized pool (40 ft. long) and a 20 ft. dock and they rent it out by the hour. Several Florida Chessie people rallied together and we rented the pool for 2 1/2 hours -- that's a LOT of jumping time. It was a beautiful day and we had 6 Chessies show up for the occassion. It was great as we had the facility all to ourselves. I did take some photos, which I'll post later, of other people's Chessies.

Jessie LOVED dock diving and she didn't want to stop. She wanted to do it again, and again, and again. Her best jump was about 16 - 16.5 ft. Hey, I'll take it! I don't think that's too shabby for a dog that's never jumped before. Plus, we were there for the fun!

We had a great time with some great people and we hope to do it again in the not so distant future.

Since Jessie loved Dock Diving so much, we'll be entering the Splash Dogs competition in Ft. Myers, FL, October 23-25.

Below are a few photos of Jessie taken by another Chessie person (thanks Jim).

Jump Jessie Jump!

"Haven't seen an update on Jess, hope all is still going well with her recovery.

Kevin"

Jessie's doing great! My gosh, the day after surgery you never wouldn've known she had been through such an ordeal. She greeted me at the vet's office with a big ol' Chessie grin, a sneeze and a snort and a whole body wiggle. I'm very lucky, my vet, and his staff,  just adore her.

Jessie is obviously feeling well, and it's hard to keep her down. She look the liberty of jumping into the back of my Explorer even though the rear door was closed and only the window was hatched open. She's always been a jumper but to see her clear that w/o even touching the bumper is pretty impressive. I nearly had a heart attack when I first saw it, though.

Below is a photo I took of her yesterday (if it doesn't preview well, you can also see it in her photo gallery).

People often ask, when will my dog mature, and we often give a candid response until 3 yrs. of age. Well, Jessie is 6 and I have to say she just keeps getting better and better. She has definitely 'matured' even more so in the past year. Now, I need to go cut all their nails (it's driving me crazy).

Thanks for checking in on Jess...She's a pretty neat dog. Now, we're gonna get that CDX and SH we've been putting off.