Olaf might be the name of the snowman in Frozen, however for the Droge family of Lennox, it is also the name of their dog. Olaf was named by Derek and Kristi Droge’s daughters because of his white coat. Not only does Olaf have a distinct name, he also is now a Champion dock jumper.
This past weekend Derek and Olaf competed in the Paws Pet Resort dock jumping competition. This was the first competition for the pair and was a last minute decision for the family. The team was lucky to still be able to register the day of the event. With this being their first event, Kristi said that they were really nervous since they had only ever practiced a few times off their dock at the lake. After the event the family found out that some dogs won’t even jump because being able to see the bottom of the pool changes their depth perception. Olaf didn’t seem phased by the change in jumping into a pool instead of the lake.
The competition last weekend had all of the dogs divided into heats. In each heat the dogs got two jumps each. Based on those first two jumps the dogs were then divided into their groups for the semi-finals. The groups were Amateur, Contender, Semi-pro and Pro. Olaf’s best jump from the first round was 16 feet 3 inches, which placed him in the Contender group.
In the semi-finals Derek adjusted the way he threw the ball into the pool a little and Olaf was able to improve his jump to 20 feet. The jump of 20 feet was good enough for Olaf to place first in his group.
Along with the dock jumping, the event also had a big air competition. In this competition the dogs competed to see who could complete more of a long jump type of jump. The other competition that dogs could compete in was the extreme vertical jump. During this event there is a toy suspended in the air and the dogs run off the end of the dock to see who can jump the highest. This is something that the Droge family would like to have Olaf try in the future. While getting to experience something new was fun, Kristi stated that “the best part of doing this competition was seeing all the dogs and hanging out with other dog lovers.”
While this first competition was great, the family is looking forward to having Olaf compete in the DockDogs competition at the Scheels Hunting Expo in August.
Photo: Olaf leaping from the dock to catch the tennis ball out of frame.
Photo credit to Little White Dog Pet Photography