The Ultimate Air Dogs show is always a popular event

CLICK HERE to review the results from this year’s event!!

ULTIMATE AIR DOGS

SPLASH. Long distance jumping is the main feature of our events. It is showcased in different rounds called “Splashes” that culminate at the end of the event with our Divisional Finals. Dogs run down a dock and fly into a pool, with the distance judged from the end of the dock to the base of the dog’s tail. Each competitor gets two jumps per Splash, with the bigger of the two jumps counting as their score. A dog’s score is placed into a division according to the distance.

FETCH IT. was devised from a training tool created by Bill Richardson for his daughter’s chocolate lab, Waffles, to simultaneously increase her vertical lift and distance, using her obsessive love for grabbing the suspended bumper when competing in Ultimate Vertical. Bill rigged together a rod with a bumper hanging on it, out of PVC and some other materials. He would stand at the end of the dock, holding this equipment over his shoulder and shout, “Waffles, Waffles, Waffles.” With each successful Catch, he would move the bumper farther out. Waffles loved the cheering crowds during her practice time as entertainment at intermissions or after events. Her excitement seemed to grow in direction proportion to the size of her audience.

One day, when Milt and Brian Wilcox got their black labs, Sparky and Jetson, in on the fun, Milt noticed the booming roar of the gathering crowds go off like fireworks, “Ooh” and “Ahh!” He looked at Bill and Brian, saying that they needed to make this into a sport for UAD, so they enlisted the help of their long time friend, Dan Avery, who with is uncanny mechanical ability, designed and engineered what is now our Fetch It rig.

Each dog must complete the catch or knock off the bumper within two trys, in order to move on to the next level. The bumper is then moved further out. It is not only a sport of endurance and skill. It also helps your dog to jump farther in our regular Splashes as it trains his or her muscle memory… and it is only found at Ultimate Air Dogs!!!

CATCH IT! A new twist on the Ultimate Distance game invented by our founder Milt Wilcox and only at Ultimate Air Dogs!!! It runs the same way as a Splash, where two jumps for each dog are judged by distance. However, the dog MUST catch the object thrown for the jump to count. And, as opposed to Long Distance jumping where only the best jump is the score, both jumps will count IF and ONLY IF the object is caught on each jump. Then the jump distances are added together for the score. Not only is it an added challenge for the dog to catch the thrown object while in mid-air, it also requires added thought and strategy from the handler.