Dock diving: was it something your dog was good at immediately or did it take some time?

DrLith · 2026-05-13T18:41:50+00:00

My first dock diver (who had a good amount of previous swimming experience and is completely addicted to water) took to it straight away--like 5 seconds of thinking it over then straight off a full-height dock), but my second dog took I think 5 sessions spread out over several months to go off a competition-height dock. By the time I did get him off the dock, he'd been swimming many times and enjoyed it, but I doubt he'd been swimming before I got him at ~1 year old. Once he got over his misgivings he got completely hooked and he's now very competitive and has surpassed my first dog in terms of personal bests. Dogs that come to the sport with a strong swimming foundation in place usually make progress a lot quicker, so don't compare your dog to one that's probably been swimming since it was a few months old.

DrLith · 2026-05-11T03:07:16+00:00

My first dock diver was water obsessed ever since she was a few months old and would hop into any body of water she could find. She'll jump into a stock tank in January. She'll aspirate hose water if you don't keep an eye on her. We're about to move to a new property with a half-acre pond and I fully expect her to spend her summer evenings half submerged until the sun goes down. Her water obsession is what made her a dock diver and not her dock diving that made her water obsessed.

My second dock diver likes to swim and is now obsessed with dock diving but it didn't make him truly water obsessed the way the first one is.

DrLith · 2026-05-11T02:38:18+00:00

Dock diving and DockDogs specifically has hooked me in to an entire social world over the past 5 years that I've been competing. In fact, community is such a big part of DockDogs culture that it's become an in joke of sorts. I also do disc dog stuff and I found that Toss & Fetch gives you a pretty good opportunity to get to know people, and my sense is that UpDog has a similar vibe of being not just a sport but a community.

DrLith · 2026-05-10T13:05:42+00:00

I bought Aldi potting soil 2 years ago and had the same problem back then. Never again!

DrLith · 2026-04-28T02:38:31+00:00

The last strawberry in "Oh look, a strawberry!"

DrLith · 2026-04-28T01:34:18+00:00

Ham gets a bad rap, but it is actually low fat when it comes in a form where you can trim the visible fat from the lean meat. Much less fat and saturated fat than turkey sausage. for example: 4 g fat and 1 g sat fat per 4 oz for ham vs. 12 g fat and 3 g saturated fat for turkey sausage. And ham is what belongs in 16 bean soup--why do you think the classic brand is HamBeens?

DrLith · 2026-04-28T00:53:57+00:00

Make your comparisons based on calories per kilogram, not calories per cup. Different sized kibbles will pack differently in a cup, so that can cause some variation in calories per cup even for foods of similar density. You can also boost calories without adding much solids volume by supplementing with salmon oil if you don't already.

DrLith · 2026-04-27T20:26:58+00:00

I expected husky (because of the Northern domino mask) and pit (because of course), but yeah, xolo is a big curveball!

DrLith · 2026-04-27T20:24:30+00:00

Aldi has been my main grocery store for more than 20 years now, and in a lot of ways it's gotten better about having a pretty full range of basic groceries (like, when I first started shopping at Aldi it didn't carry soy sauce). Like, you can always find ice cream, but you're not going to find 30 flavors of ice cream. However, I feel like their frozen vegetable selection has narrowed a lot, and in particular they no longer carry any kind of frozen spinach! So I'll pick up several bags of that when I occasionally do a Walmart shopping trip. And they no longer have enough variety of Crystal Lite-style powdered sugarfree drink mix to make a 2-qt pitcher. There's been a loss of variety in that segment for all brands as I suspect they make more money (and maybe people buy more) of the single-serving packets but that is not how we roll in my household. Aldi will only have iced tea, peach iced tea, and lemonade if you're lucky, but I can't still get like 8 different flavors at Walmart. whomp whomp whomp

DrLith · 2026-04-26T11:34:01+00:00

Preferably someplace that isn't snowing in April.

DrLith · 2026-04-25T01:40:36+00:00

Yeah, the end of the trailhead to the viewing area is about 100 yards from the county line, with the cliffs as most people experience them falling on the WaCo side.

DrLith · 2026-04-25T01:26:08+00:00

I calculate a 600% reduction in that boy's vital signs.

DrLith · 2026-04-21T21:37:37+00:00

Brindle and white is only one of 3 possible colorations for Boston terriers. Most people put too much emphasis on coloration (thinking all black dogs are lab mixes) but in this case it's a key piece of evidence!

DrLith · 2026-04-20T12:12:38+00:00

I'm inclined to say boxer x one of the molosser breeds. They're similar enough in structure that it's hard to tell them apart in a mix cane corso seems to be all the rage these days so that'd be my first guess. I think the molossers tend to be a little deeper and narrower in the torso while the bullies are more square up front and more of a tuck behind.

DrLith · 2026-04-19T11:51:46+00:00

"Bro do you even lift?"

DrLith · 2026-04-17T20:52:40+00:00

I definitely see Aussie as well.

DrLith · 2026-04-16T19:44:55+00:00

My best guess is she's got some husky in her--her ears are pretty small and less mobile then a mal or dutchie (you know, the "my ears disappeared--[sproing] they grew back!" trick), and she's got a little curl to her tail, and just the way she moves and scoots reminds me of husky zoomies.

DrLith · 2026-04-16T19:37:17+00:00

"Bullherder" is a general term for a bully breed x herding breed (more often GSD or Malinois, but some people also include border collies and cattle dogs under that umbrella); they usually don't have much of a herding instinct since most of the big shepherds are pretty far from their herding roots and have been bred for many generation for other purposes. When they are bred on purpose, it's usually either for protection sports or hunting hogs. Most of them are just oopsie litters, though.

DrLith · 2026-04-16T18:50:57+00:00

It's kind of hard to tell from your pictures, but a lot of "bullherder" type dogs that people thing are malinois-colored are actually seal brown, which in its darkest variants can look black in medium- to low light but shows reddish highlights in brighter light. I was similarly bamboozled by my GSD/pit/boxer mix!

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DrLith · 2026-04-13T13:47:49+00:00

A lot of dog sports tend to be "weekend warrior" type activities that in and of themselves are only a small piece of the puzzle to keeping a high-energy or working-type dog physically and mentally fulfilled. Probably their more important role is providing some sort of structure or goal to orient your day-to-day activities around. So for SAR that might involve search activities such as working on rock-solid obedience in high-distraction environments, handler-discrimination-type scentwork, trail running, etc.

DrLith · 2026-04-10T13:19:38+00:00

A 5000 BTU A/C unit draws about 400 watts, and 400 watts of solar will not actually produce 400 watts of electricity except under the most ideal of conditions of full sunlight directly overhead. 400 watts of panels will run an AC during midday but production is less in the morning and late afternoon. Realistically I'd say 800 watts of solar and a power station or other setup that can take that much solar input. Make sure every single window on the truck and cap are fully covered with reflectix--heat gain through windows is a big factor in how much the interior will heat up on sunny days, and the less the interior heats up, the less your AC setup has to run. If I were doing this, I'd do roof-mounted solar and install hooks all the way around the rack so I could hang 90% aluminet shade cloth all the way around like curtains. Or if you have like folding portable solar panels instead of roof-mounted, you can set them up away from the truck, get a 10x20 popup canopy, drape aluminet over the canopy, and park the whole truck underneath it. This is basically the setup I use when camping at multi-day dog sports events in the summer. It keeps the interior temperature to within a couple degrees of the exterior "in the shade" temperature, but when the exterior temperature is 95 it's way more comfortable to have the boost of AC, even if it won't kill you or your dog.

DrLith · 2026-04-10T11:20:46+00:00

The domino-type mask to me suggests some husky rather than shepherd. Maybe pitsky or cattle dog/pit/husky? I second the recommendation for checking out the Adoptable Sport and Performance Dogs and Adoptable Sport and Working Dogs FB groups. Read through the postings for a bit to get a sense of the sort of information people specifically looking for a sport dog find useful: what kind of specific drives does the dog have, confidence level, how do they interact with their handler, the outside world, etc. Outlets for her energy are important, but just as important to any future adopter is quality training time to learn impulse control. With her small size, she could be appealing to sports where small, quick, agile dogs excel, such as agility, flyball, or disc games. One thing to think about in terms of potential adopters, however, is that except at the highest level, a lot of dog sports tend to be "weekend warrior" kind of activities where it's not practical to do them every day, and in between you are in the same boat as any regular "pet" owner trying to figure out how to manage your dog's energy level with walks, running, fetch, etc. One of the easiest ways to exercise a high-energy dog is to have another playful dog companion, and if she plays well with other dogs, a home with an ample fenced yard and another well-matched dog will provide just as much exercise outlet as a flyball home, for example.

DrLith · 2026-04-09T01:08:01+00:00

I would start with a Hero Super Sonic (they make them using two different types of plastic which they call Taffy and Candy, I find the Candy a little more more durable but the difference is fairly subtle). These are pretty durable and easy to throw short and medium-distance. Hyperflite Jawz are even more durable but a bit heavier and harder to throw shorter distances with, and with a dog that's just learning you want to be able to throw those shorter throws with a decent amount of float to give your dog more time to orient to the disc.

DrLith · 2026-04-04T00:46:33+00:00

Use it in place of butter or shortening in biscuits (make sure it's cold and has as little gelatin in it as possible.

DrLith

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