It was a picturesque weekend in Chino Hills. On Saturday the venue was bustling with dozens of local vendors and people from the community spending an afternoon with their canine companions in an effort to raise money for the American Cancer Society. On the dock, the dogs were soaring and many new ones were inaugurated. Max, a recently rescued Chocolate Lab, returned to the dock, this time with his adoptive dad. He made his foster mom proud by setting a new personal best of 11’3” and surprising his new dad just how much he loves this sport. Sebastiane, a newcomer to the sport, instantly took to the dock, with his first competitive dive of 12’3”, and continued to improve from there.
Sunday proved to be near perfection. Dallas, a rescued Black Labrador mix, who only recently started jumping, started the day off with a bang, wowing the crowd with a new personal best of 19’10”. Tracy Ecks, Dallas’ owner, made it a memorable weekend by following Dallas into the pool to celebrate a phenomenal team effort.
Before getting into the nitty gritty of finals, the participants enjoyed pizza and cake in celebration of Molly Godiva’s 8th birthday.
After the celebration, everyone put on their game faces. Lap dog finals were a nail biter with Lorcan, the Mighty Jack, and his keeper, Eden Heigel, taking home the gold. Going home with another gold, Eden Heigel and her little spitfire Border Collie, Aston Martin (Tone), in the 0-9’11” division. In the 10-13’11 division, Kona Kai and his owner, Pam Lucado, took home the gold with a flawless 15’5” jump. In the 14-16’11” division came the dream team, Carlie Hauck and Chase with a 16’7” jump. The ringer, Dallas, and Tracy Ecks sparkled with their gold medal in the 17-19”11 division with an 18’5” jump. An honorable mention goes out to Marc Marsceill with his two incredible Labs, Dakota and Diesel who took home the silver and bronze in this division, respectively. These two dogs spent their morning running their tails off in agility and then b-lined it to dock diving to finish off their afternoons. To top off the weekend, Kate Bernstein and her gorgeous Yellow Lab, Oliver, took home the gold in the 22” division with a whopping 23’3” jump, which was also Oliver’s new personal best. Following the standard set that morning by Tracy Ecks, Kate also joined her pup in the pool to celebrate their monumental achievement.
Thank you to everyone who came to this event and made it an incredible and memorable weekend. Also, special thanks to Bark for Life for having American Diving Dogs as part of its event and to the Boys Republic for the beautiful venue. And a special thanks to Julie Hatch who traveled all the way from Utah to help make this event run smoothly.
