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 The weather was near perfect on Friday evening as
hundreds enjoyed the shows put on by some very well trained and
talented dogs and handlers. At 5 p.m. there were sprinkles of rain
that lasted only a few minutes and no thunder or lightening. On
Saturday evening it was cloudy, the temperatures were comfortable
and the breeze was refreshing. So the shows went off without a
hitch, much to the pleasure of the hundreds of spectators who came
to watch both evenings.
The Dock Dogs event is special in many ways. We heard a lot of folks
talking about the benefits of the event. It is light-hearted fun,
clean family entertainment that is attractive to all generations, it
is not hard to follow or understand, and perhaps best of all, it was
free.
The events included dogs and handlers that were both local and from
places far away. Perhaps those who came the farthest were the
competitors for “down under.” Yes, two of the competitors in Lincoln
this weekend were from Australia. Another strong competitor in the
events was a handler and dog from the state of Washington.
Hometown competitors also enjoyed the event including
Lincoln Street Superintendent Walt Landers who expressed his support
for bringing the activity to Lincoln when it was proposed last year
by Chris Graue.
On both evenings families gathered on the lawn of the Logan County
Courthouse. There were multi-generational groups with grandparents,
parents, children, and sometimes pets. Yes, we had doggie spectators
at the Dock Dogs. There were all ages of people watching, and all
sizes of dogs.
The three main categories for the competitions are easy to
understand. In one, the handler threw a toy into the water and the
dog jumped in to retrieve it.
In another, a soft buoy was hung from a pole in the air over the
water and the goal was for the dog to jump off the dock and up, up,
up into the air to get the buoy. In this competition, when the dog
got the buoy at one height, then the pole was adjusted to make it
taller and the dog had another chance to fly higher. Some of the
dogs jumped more than six feet.
The third competition had the buoy attached to a timing devise at
the far end of the pool. The dog was to run the length of the dock,
jump into the water; swim to the buoy and pull it off the timing
device. The competition ended there, but as an added bonus, the dogs
carried the buoy in their mouths back to the dock and gave it to
their handlers. It’s hard to say which of these three competitions
were the crowd favorites as shouts, cheers, and clapping went up for
each animal in each event.
There were also some fun, laughing moments as viewers watched a few
dogs struggle with sudden water shyness.
One dog for example made the quick run the full length of the dock
only to put on the brakes with all fours and come to a complete stop
at the end of the dock. He eyed the water, and edged his front feet
over. With encouragement from his handler, he finally slipped into
the water and went and grabbed his toy. The crowd roared first with
laughter then with cheers as the pooch made his way back to the ramp
that would allow him to walk out of the water.
By the way, later, the dog would tackle the jump with no problem,
the shyness only lasted a moment.
Then there is the story of Radar. Radar is a young female dog that
looked to have a bloodline that would have included some breed of
Sitter. She is still learning the tricks of the trade and with
patience her handler tried to get the dog in the water for the
competition, but it just never happened. The trainer was also young,
a girl who was showing more than one dog, so she was not terribly
upset with how her weekend went as the other dog did pretty well.
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 Now about Radar. Her trainer claimed that she can
fall into water with no problem, but the jump in front of a crowd
was just a little too much. On the other hand, sitting happily on
the courthouse lawn the trainer would ask for a left hand shake and
get it, a right handed shake and get it, or she would hold out her
arm and the dog would place both paws on the arm and stare longingly
at her master awaiting a small treat from the bag the trainer
carried. Radar also loved visiting with those who approached her for
a pat on the head. Then there were the boys
from down under.
Watching the dogs, even a novice at dog breeds could see that many
of the dogs were in the breed categories defined as retrievers and
bird dogs. One looked to be part sitter and one had German Shepard
ancestry. These are all larger dog breeds with light bodies and lots
of leg. The dogs from Australia were different. They best resembled
what we in the states call cattle or herding dogs. They are smaller,
lighter, and extremely fast.
The dogs also seem to have a crazy love for water. So much so that
the handlers really had to keep hands on to them on the dock to
prevent them from starting their runs too early. Some were puzzled
perhaps when the one trainer attached a tether to the dog. The
tether was a long flexible cable long enough for the dog to swim the
full length of the pool. After the jump then the trainer carefully
and slowly pulled the dog back to the ramp.
In the second run of the competition that same dog was the last to
compete and the trainer failed to hook up the tether. When the dog’s
time had been recorded, the trainer jumped in the water and swam out
to get the dog while the announcer explained that this particular
dog would “never come out of the water” on its own, so the trainer
had to go get him.
On Friday and Saturday both, events were held at 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5
p.m. and 7 p.m. Between the two evening shows on both nights, it was
fun to see how many people just stayed around the courthouse lawn.
They took a trek over to the food vendor area grabbed something for
their supper and came back and just sat down and enjoyed the evening
downtown.
With the Swigs portion of the weekend event going on at the other
end of Broadway Street, the live music began and those there to see
the dogs enjoyed the time of just sitting about, enjoying the music
and their food and spending time with family and friends.
Food vendors over the weekend were surely happy people. On Saturday
night the lines for the food concessions were huge. It appeared that
the longest lines after 6 p.m. were at the Nuthatch Hill truck owned
and operated by local vendor Brad Luckhart.
Near the Dock Dogs event, there was one food vendor selling corn
dogs and cold soft drinks and lemonade. The truck was operated by
local folk from Lincoln – the Lincolnland Caterers. At about 6:30
p.m. Saturday night he turned out his lights. He had sold out
completely. It was late enough in the evening they were not going to
re-stock but he was very, very happy with his day and his weekend.
Other vendors did equally well as we saw a lot of folks nibbling on
those homemade cookies filled with ice cream that came from one of
the trucks. And speaking of ice cream, it was a really good weekend
for the new Top Hat Creamery ice cream shop at the Arcade building.
We saw lots of people with Top Hat cups and cones.
Chris Graue is the one who brought the idea of Dock
Dogs to Lincoln. On both nights he made a walk through to see how it
was going. On Friday night he was so thrilled by the turnout and he
saw the same thing again on Saturday night. As he made his way
through the crowds, he visited with folks and shook hands with
competitors and others. It was clear that he couldn’t have been more
pleased by what he saw.
It was Chris Graue and a very dedicated, hard-working band of
committee members who first brought the KCBS Up in Smoke Barbecue
competition to Lincoln several years ago. Graue will tell you the
group worked two to three years to get everything put together and
organized so that the event would be successful right out of the
gate.
Graue was also the one who thought to bring Dock Dogs to Lincoln.
This time he did it with shorter notice, coming up with the idea
early in the year last year, and pushing hard to get sponsorship and
location details worked out so that the dogs could be in Lincoln by
June. He did so again with the help of people who believed this was
a good addition to the annual festival, and they were not wrong. The
crowds this weekend at the second ever Dock Dogs competition in
Lincoln are living proof of that.
Kudos to all those who worked so hard to bring this festival to a
successful completion again this year.
[Nila Smith] |
