K-9 Water Sports

The Requirement

Dock Diving also known as Dock Jumping first appeared as a canine event 20 years ago as a promotional competition for a pet food manufacturer in the USA and has since evolved into a canine water sport which is run by a growing number of organisations across an increasing number of countries worldwide.

The event involves dogs launching themselves from a dock (or other suitable raised platforms) and jumping into water which can be a lake but is often a large pool, they are marked on the distance jumped.

Alistage have worked with K9 Aqua Sports over a number of years developing the use of our stage equipment to form the perfect dock for their events.

With jumps of over 7m recorded both the dock and the pool need to be on a grand scale and at the same time the equipment needs to be quick to rig and de rig and easy to transport.

The Solution

The design has evolved into a dock constructed from Alistage stage equipment that forms a main runway 12.2m long and 2.44m wide at a height of 1.7m with the dogs jumping into a pool that is 12.2m long, 6.1m wide at a depth of 1.2m.

A stage deck ramp which extends below the water and an additional side platform are provided to allow the dogs to exit the water and two sets of steps provide access from and to ground level.

With only three small adaptations from standard equipment the design has allowed K9 Aqua Sports to hire the equipment to form a second dock where, with their increasingly busy calendar, they have had two events over the same dates.

The design has also been adapted to allow the use of the same equipment with a smaller dock area at fishing exhibitions to illustrate and demonstrate casting techniques and allow the trial of new rods and equipment.