Note to readers: I had a cool, big picture of a flying dog here, but for some reason it was messing up the type on Internet Explorer, but not on Mozilla. So I took it down. Sorry.
Anyway, Sept. 18 I stopped by Bryant Park to check out an exhibition of something called "DockDogs,'' in which dogs that know how to jump very high and/or very far compete in events that measure their ability to do both of the above.
How do they avoid getting injured? They land in four feet of water.
It's as strange and compelling as it sounds, and it can be seen in a series on the Outdoor Channel that began last week and features a new episode every Thursday at 9 p.m.
The channel is popular and widely distributed in some parts of the country, but less so around here, because its focus is all that icky hunting and fishing stuff.
Cablevision customers, for example, can get it only via the company's Sports Pak, which costs $4.95 per month and also includes NBA TV and (soon) the NHL Channel.
NOTE TO READERS:
For the first time ever, I'm using the "extended entry'' feature on the blog to tell you more about DockDogs if you care about the subject without boring readers on the main blog page.
Cool!
In the "big air'' competition, dogs jump off an 8x40-foot dock, grab a toy and try to land as far down the 40-foot-long pool as possible. The record distance: 28 feet!
The "extreme vertical'' competition, which involves traveling up and then out, has produced leaps of up to around eight feet in the air.
DockDogs CEO Grant Reeves said the dogs enjoy the activity and that serious injuries are extremely rare. He said physical problems usually are limited to simple tiredness or what he called "cold tail,'' which he described as a sprain of the tail similar to spraining a finger from accidentally bending it backward.
Comments (2)
Letterman had a demo of some of these fine athletes a month or so ago. Gotta love them dogs.
My Microsoft browser doesn't like your setup of extended entry. The picture covered type and the link to the extension was missing. This Mozilla browser is happy, however.
Hmmm. That's concerning. I use Mozilla and it's fine. I will check it on my Internet Explorer. Thanks, Mr. Darwin's Theory, er, I mean Charlie Chilkoot.