By Shawn Stahl
Team Fowl Pursuit - Video Action
Team Fowl Pursuit's head retriever 'Deuce' goes Big Air at the Dock Dogs Great Lakes Regional held at the Grand Rapids Sport, Fish and RV Show. Competitors from all across the Midwest, including MN, WI, MI and Ohio showed up for the event. Winning a preliminary heat on Friday night with a jump of 19'8" ranked Deuce first in the senior division, and 6th in the Open Division for Sunday's finals.
Division titles and awards are given to dogs when they compete 5 legs in a specific category:
Novice 0'1" -- 9' 11"
Junior 10'0" -- 14' 11"
Senior 15'0" -- 19' 11"
Master 20'0" -- 22' 11"
Elite 23'0" and above
Deuce's first jump in the Senior Division Finals of 19'9" held up to claim him the title of Senior Division Champ. Next came the Open Finals, a twelve-dog jump off of the weekends best. Each dog had two attempts to qualify their longest jump for the Final Four. Going into Deuces second jump he needed to jump beyond a 19'8" to advance. As luck would have it Deuce pulled through with a 19'9". Having already jumped several times in practice and four times already Deuce seemed to be a little "jumped out" and could only provide a best jump of 19'3" placing him in 4th overall.Junior Finals:
1) Jason Crawford / Farley 14.08
3) Dan Myers / Abbey 14.07
4) Shawn Rabidoux / Buddy 13.03
Senior Finals:
1) Shawn Stahl / Deuce 19.09
2) Brett Haywood / Mustang Sally 18.08
3) Gabriel Covey / Sarge 17.07
4) Dakota Krueger / Poker 17.05
5) Dan Avery / Lily 15.08
Top 12 Finals:
1) Dean Skillman / Wylie 22.11
2) Bob Mallory / Sir Jackson 20.09
3) George Long / Dude 19.07
4) Shawn Stahl / Duece 19.03
5) Jean Stavely / AbbyWingus 19.08
6) Michael Madrigal / Poncho 19.06
7) Gabriel Covey / Sarge 18.02
8) Jean Stavely / Teddy 17.04
9) Darcy Monier / Misha 17.01
10) Mike Kline / Haley 16.10
11) Dakota Krueger / Poker 16.08
12) Brett Haywood / Mustang Sally 16.05
Deuce, with his endless energy and long known to retrieve anything possible, including TV remotes, kids toys, bumpers, squirrels (after catching them), and waterfowl took to dock jumping by accident. "After running several 400 yard plus water blinds, he still had energy so I threw him bumpers off a nearby dock until my arm got tired." Later we measured his jumping ability with a tape measure, even after training he was consistently in the 18-20 foot range so we vowed to enter him in a Dock Dog event while at the DU Festival in Memphis last year where he jumped for the first time off a qualified dock, he managed an 18'10" average on two jumps there. Deuce will be spending his "summer vacation" in Minnesota with Pro Field Trialer Rick Stawski, owner of Fine Line Retrievers.
For a list of upcoming Dock Dog events visit http://www.dockdogs.com/events.html