Dock diving is a fun new sport that you and your PWD are going to love! The name of the game is distance. How far can your dog jump off the end of a dock into a body of water? (One of the best in the world is a Whippet named Sounders with a distance of just under 37′!)

Dock diving originated as a Purina display event. In 2014 North American Diving Dogs was formed, formalizing the sport. NADD offers diving dog titles which are recognized by the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC).

In dock diving dogs are encouraged, by throwing a favourite toy, to jump as far as possible off the end of a 40 foot ‘dock’ into a measured 4′ deep pool of water. They compete for both height and distance. Each team takes two jumps in round-robin format. The longer of the two jumps is that team’s score for that competition. The dog is not required to actually retrieve the toy for the jump to count.

Portuguese Water Dogs should be obvious naturals at this sport so get out this summer and give Sounders a leap for the money!

Getting Started

As this is a fairly new dog sport, opportunities to train at a facility are somewhat limited but with the sport’s popularity on the rise you can expect more options to arrise.

The NADD website is a good starting point to find events in your area. There is a nominal one time membership fee. Training facilities can be found here.