|
Thunder is a muscular Black Lab adopted on May 6, 2006 from Lab Rescue (Thunder's Happy Ending). He was born approximately November 2004. Thunder's first DockDogs event was in June 2006 where he jumped in
the Senior Division. All through 2006 and his first 2007 event he stayed in the Senior Divison. In March 2007
at Pawsabilities, Thunder's brain finally connected to all those muscles, he sat and STAYED on the dock, and BOOMED - jumping
in the Master and Elite Divisions. His National Personal Best is 22' 6" earned at Manheim (7/2007) and his Regional
Personal Best is 24' 2" earned at Gander Mtn (4/2007).
I wanted Thunder to try EV at the Labs & Abs Training
Facility in May. He was all the way up to around 6' 4" when Buddy decided to retrieve the tape measure from Angie, dropped
it, and it sank to the bottom of the pond. Practice was called on account of no one willing to fetch the tape measure but
he had loads of fun that day! Thunder decided to try EV officially at Quakertown, PA in June. He BOOMED again
and jumped his way up to a Personal Best of 5' 8". At the Codorus Summer Blast, Thunder worked hard for a new Regional
EV Personal Best of 6' 6" - jumping all the way from 5' 4" all by himself and grabbing the bumper every two inches.
He matched his Regional EV Personal Best with a new National Personal Best of 6' 6" at the Kiki Classic in
September 2007.
Thunder is a very high energy lab and defines the phrase "A tired lab is a good lab". Every
day, I try to play ball with him (either at a baseball field or into the water) for about 30 minutes, walk 1.5 miles, then
play ball for another 30 minutes. If it's cool out, we'll throw in another 1.5 miles at the end. Luckily I live
a block from the water where he can swim all the time - even if there's ice on the water. We also go kayaking
but he's learned he can "retrieve" me when he's ready to go back to shore. Thunder greatly amuses the fishermen
and other boaters when he grabs his leash and tows me in. The benefits of all this exercise is that he's a couch
potato in the evening and loves to just hang out. To sum Thunder up, he's a ball crazy lab (O.C. Doggie) who loves
walks, swimming, playing ball, "helping" around the house, being a couch 'tater, and playing with all his DockDogs friends
especially Lil' Miss Daisy Lou. Daisy Lou, out of all his other good friends who he competes and plays with, is
his very best friend and he loves to travel with her to all the DockDogs Events.
|
|
| Playing Ball - Thunder's Favorite Thing |
|
|
| Thunder & Daisy Looouuu |
|
|
| Playing Ball in the Snow |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
