Sit, Stay, Jump! Dock Diving Is Making a Splash With Dogs in NJ

Tinton Falls trainer Heather Freeman’s most accomplished dog was her own. A pit bull, German shepherd, bichone frise rescue, Nathan Jr. was named after the kidnapped infant in the 1987 cult-classic crime comedy Raising Arizona, so he arrived with pop culture—and energy.

“He was a crazy puppy,” she says. “I didn’t know what to do with him.”

Then living in Georgia, Freeman rented a weekend cabin and learned of his obsession with water. “He’d run out, then jump back in,” she remembers of the path that led the duo into dock diving for dogs, an increasingly popular canine aquatics sport.

Freeman, who now owns and operates ZingZingK9 Sports, enrolled Nathan Jr. in a class at a pool north of Atlanta. His first day the instructor stood in the pool, saying, “Just show me what he does.” Freeman threw his favorite ball; he went soaring over the teacher’s head. “The whole ride home, he slept—in the daylight,” she says.

Nathan Jr. would become multi-titled in the sport’s various organizations and eventually appear on the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge five times, twice on the National Dog Show on NBC and other shows for years, retiring at the Super Retriever Series National Championships where he took second in the veteran division. “He’d jump anywhere for anyone,” Freeman says. “He’s the reason I now do what I do.”

Nathan Jr., who was almost 14 when he passed in 2023, jumped 26 feet in his prime, then an enormous feat. Today, the best dogs leap 30 feet or more.

It’s believed dock diving for dogs originated in England in the 1970s. In 1997, the United States was introduced to the sport via ESPN. Soon, DockDogs, one of three major canine aquatic organizations, was established in 2000 with three primary “games”—the quintessential Distance Jumping (often called Big Air), Extreme Vertical and Speed Retrieve.

Steve Powell, who with his wife, Kristin, owns Wisconsin-based North American Diving Dogs (NADD), the only one of the three linked with the American Kennel Club (AKC), has 89 facilities in the U.S. and Canada and runs 600-plus events a year (and installs one of its mobile pools on-site). The organization has 44,000 registered dogs in its portal, 14,000 more than when they bought NADD in 2023. The East Coast is its biggest market.

“The sport’s still growing very fast,” Steve says. “Everyone wants it in their backyard.”

The Distance Jump—like track’s long jump—measures how far a dog jumps after running down a dock that’s generally 40 feet long and 8 feet wide and always 2 feet above the water to retrieve a toy. The mark’s measured by where the base of the dog’s tail breaks the water. In Extreme Vertical (the high jump equivalent), dogs leap off the dock to snatch a bumper suspended over the water at varying heights. In Speed Retrieve, dogs jump from the dock, swim 37 feet to grab a suspended bumper and return it to a 10-foot mark as quickly as possible.

Each with its own spin, and different names for the same games, DockDogs is known for entertaining, competitive, festival-fair events; NADD, which began in 2014 with the AKC partnership and has been televised on ESPN , rewards dogs for commitment and camaraderie, and not necessarily winning. Ultimate Air Dogs (UAD), the 2005 creation of former Detroit Tigers’ 1984 World Series pitcher Milt Wilcox, is the more inclusive family-friendly of the three, and the one some credit for getting the sport into small-town America.

“We don’t care where you jump or who you spend your money with, enjoy the time with your dog,” Powell says. “They’re not here long enough with us.”

Initially, sporting and water breeds dominated dock diving; today, it’s whippets (with sporting breed mixes a close second in efforts to “build a faster Ferrari,” he says). NADD’s distance record is 36 feet, 11 inches by Sounders, a whippet. That’s also a Guinness world record. NADD’s Air Retrieve record is 31 feet by Rogue, another whippet. For Hydro Dash, it’s 11.44 seconds by Brando, a Belgian malinois.

Hardly watered down, many breeds can excel. Freeman’s worked with a Shih Tzu and a bloodhound. Powell, though, is quick to suggest that not every dog is a willing participant. His first weekend, his dog refused to jump.

“The key is acclimating your dog, so I always say keep coming back,” he says.

Freeman wouldn’t mind the traffic. Now in her 17th year, she arrived in New Jersey in 2022, helping inspire and continuing to teach at what was first a mobile pool at Tail Waggin’ Events in Robbinsville, a facility owned by Darlene and Jimmy Barnes. They opened a permanent pool last spring. They have a dock diving event coming up on August 21-23.

“All dog sports are a thrill, but this is an adrenaline rush,” says Susan Soviero, president of the 170-member Bayshore Companion Dogs Club in Tinton Falls. “You marvel at the athleticism, and love to see a dog in that physical condition. People love it.”

But like Powell says, it doesn’t mean every dog will be as fond. Last year, Susan’s husband John started a young dog—Creed, a 2-year-old Portuguese water dog—but they’ve been down this dock before. Eight years ago, they tried their Cyrus, another of the same seemingly perfectly-named breed, at 4. He ended up stuck under the dock; John had to pull him from the pool. Creed’s gone from falling off the dock in Robbinsville to leaping 16 feet. He had his first NADD event in Freehold over Memorial Day weekend at the East Freehold Park Showgrounds as part of the Jersey Shore Cluster, a multi-day dog show.

Though Freeman personally competes in DockDogs events—plus she’s on the board of a regional DockDogs club, Delmarva Dock Dogs, which will hold an event in Tuckerton between September 26-27 called Jumping in Jersey—she grasps the purposes of each entity.

“It’s great for me as a trainer,” she says. “If you want to jump off a dock at home, I’m here for you. If you want a major AKC title, I’m here. I want to help dogs, and I’m proud to have brought a little bit of this to New Jersey.”

Freeman knows she can do more with her own property and indoor pool where she can teach year-round and live with her pack that includes 10-year-old business namesake Zing!, a Belgian malinois who’s now labeled a “legend” because she’s older (a dock dog over 12 is called a “hero”), Rico, an 8-year-old border collie who can still jump 25 feet, and Cobra, a 3-year-old female Belgian malinois who’s a constant teaching com-panion. Another Border collie, “a baby Rico,” is due later this year.

Initially, Freeman lets pups soak in puppyhood—though as on-site dock diving spectators.

“I love them being there,” she says. “I want them to love what I love.”