dock jumping - English style

Well it looked like it does over here. Dock jumping has only been in the UK for a year, but I think unless they get more people doing it it might not last.
There were only about 10 dogs jumping in the splashes. The crowd pleaser was a 13yr old junior handler who was totally deaf and took his cues by hand signals - 1st picture. His mom held the dog at the bottom of the steps until he signaled her to ley him go.

The second pic is of the third longest jumping dog - A GOLDEN!!!. He was 8 years old and jumped around 11 feet
The longest was some kind of English mix breed and #2 was a black lab.
The longest jump was only around 17' - I assume as I am not sure how the distances were judged. Most jumps were in novice and low juniors.

As to the judging - this was the first event I have been to with video judging and I have to assume it is not how it is done in the US.
Pic#3 is of the camera - a home video camera hung a on an EZ-UP. It was focused on the pond, but as you can see in pic #4 there was crowd all along the side of the pool. The guy( judge) stopped the video when he saw/thought the dog entered the water, but I have no idea how he got a distance as he could often not see 2-3 of the foot markers behind the crowd. I was standing right at the end of the dock when a dog sort of jumped and it looked like about 1ft and the judge called it 3'6" ????

All the people running the jumping event were American and indicated they were done for the summer and heading home - to the US I assume.

You can see the netting along the one side of the dock. I saw one dog shy druing practice, went off the edge, and got caught in the netting. Some of the crowd caught him before he fell off completely and pushed him back up.
A lot of the dogs jumping were Border Collies

the deaf Jr. Handler


8 year old golden - nice form


the judges camera


Standing behind the judge.

I am suprised there weren't more dogs. Only 10 is a very low turn out. We should send one of our 22+ jumpers over there as an American Ringer.
The camera system is basically how it is over here. They use a proprietary (read $$$$) software to judge distance. I have been trying to figure out how to make my own version but haven't gotten there yet. I am suprised to see the camera mounted to the EZ-UP as that will cause it to sway when the wind blows or if anyone bumps the tent frame. Normally it is on it's own tripod and no one is allowed around it. Once it's calibrated you CANNOT move it.
How was the crowd attendance? Were the people excited or just see it as another pet trick? It will be interesting to see how it holds up over there.

I would say that the spectators were reserved (English). They were polite and did clap when encouraged. There were not as many people watching the dock jumping as the agility and other events.
If that is how they do it here how do they see where the dog enters the water? Do they let people along the side of the pool in front of the camera here?
The camera fed a video signal to the laptop and the judge just clicked stop (reaction time??) when he thought the dog entered the water. He then looked at the pic, clicked where he thought the dog entered the water, and got the distance.

The camera was located at about 13 feet out, about 15 feet from the pool. So if you do a quick triangle he was looking at the 3 foot mark at about a 40 degree angle, making the angles to the short and long distances pretty sharp angles (I looked at the screen), not looking straight on like say when a judge is watching it live at the side of the pool. I don't know how he got the distances for all the short jumps, especially since the dog landed in the center of the pool three feet away from the measure tape.

Over here the software allows them to go frame by frame (30 frame per second I think) and stop it where the dog enters the water. The program is made to adjust for the parallax effect (triangle) and once callibrated is pretty accurate. It's based on the same program used for judging ski jumping. If they were just trying to get it by reaction time, then they were using it wrong. Although with only 10 dogs it's not like it's going to really matter. The thing I like about the camera measurement is that since it's a calibrated measurement it's the same for everyone. If it's off for the short jumpers, then it's off for the long jumpers too. It takes the sujectivity out of the measurements. The problem is that the program is VERY expensive. Since it sounds like this was more of a demo then the distances are not that critical. And NO, no one is allowed in front of the camera. They need to keep the whole side of the pool clear to be sure they get a good video feed back. If they aren't using the program correctly, then they are just being lazy.

That makes more sense. I think these were official events, as they were announcing the titles each dog had gotten over the summer.

No, you do not need to keep the entire side of the pool clear in order to judge. The banner that is on the pool is only for the spectators. It is not what they actually use for measurements. Prior to the event, the judges calibrate the system.

As for the crew that was there, they are top notch. I know the people that were sent to England for this event, and they are about as good as you get.

Let's keep this fun and turn it into a bashing discussion. I think it is cool that you were able to get your dock jumping fix while on vacation.

I was not trying to bash. I just didn't understand how they get the distance if they can't see where the dog goes into the pool, now I do.
It was obvious that the dogs jumping did not have a lot of experience. Only the Blk Lab that they said had a Senior or Master title and the Mix that jumped longest did a sit and stay well. For a lot of the other dogs the people just threw it and the dog ran and jumped.
There were only 5 events in the UK this year, so they don't get as much jumping experience as we do over here.