This last year was our first year competing in DockDogs with a “thinking” dog.  We started off the season with a three foot even jump.  We have been practicing all summer with decreasing the hesitation at the end of the dock before she jumps into the pool. I had been trying anything that was suggested to us to try and stop this pause at the end of the dock, and now at the end of the season I was rewarded with these great jumps.  In September we attended an event in Blue Springs, MO and she did GREAT!!! She jumped her personal best of 14ft 9 inches, with no hesitation at the end of the dock.  I thought that we had figured it out and just in time for Nationals.  I was so excited for this opportunity to compete in Ohio.  We get there and it is just above freezing and drizzling, Deke jumped a twelve foot jump on the first day.  I was relived thinking that the hesitation was still fixed, and then on Saturday and Sunday the hesitation was back.  I thought maybe the water was too cold or she just did not want to jump in the water.

 This fall we had a great opportunity to take Deke hunting, starting the Monday after Nationals .This dog was going non stop into freezing water to bring in the ducks up until the season stopped in December, so I have a hard time believing that the water was to cold at nationals.  Maybe she just wanted to lie around the motel room and watch animal planet??  They started having problems with her breaking as soon as the guns were fired, and did not have anyone to hold her in check as the gunmen were shooting, so I decide to go out for myself and just see if I can get this problem “fixed”. I get all my waterfowl gear on and went out with my Dad to this little pond that was just loaded with hundreds of wood ducks, teal and a few geese, to see just what “problem” Deke, the always thinking dog, was having.  Ten minutes until the end of shooting hours and the ducks start coming in to sleep on the pond.  I was able to get a hold of Deke’s collar just as they were starting to come in and then she saw them!  What happened next should have been in the story of Marley and Me.  After the third duck hit the water she could not take it any longer. She lunged so hard for the ducks,that she pulled me over on to my belly and was dragging me, and all of my gear weighing in at 200+lbs. With both hands on her collar she pulled me at least five feet through cattails before I was able to get her stopped!  I am now looking at this dog that has missed her first two hunting seasons to let her legs heal from having her ACLs fixed in disbelief that she just pulled me off my feet and on to my belly through the cattails! She has all of this drive to get the ducks weather you shoot them first or not, and I can only get her to jump into the pool only after begging her to get her toy.  How do I find the key element that will get that drive for the ducks to be transferred to jumping off the dock?  Now as we are starting a new season, I will take my “thinking” dog and try to out smart her to get that drive and determination on the dock that she has in the field. Maybe if we don’t get this done we will just have to change her name to “Sudoku”, since that is the only other thing that makes me use my brain this much and I still enjoy it as much as I enjoy spending time with Deke.

–Tamara Alexander