Ultimate Air Dogs Hall of Fame

I seem to recall that when I started going to UAD events, my favorite dogs to watch were Gumpy, Digger and Rajah, among many others.

Gumpy was a pretty amazing little dog, no one would have guessed that he was sick and I don't think there's ever been a more entertaining dog on the dock

Digger and Rajah were just great jumpers, nice form, a joy to watch and wonderful ambassadors for their breed and for dock jumping.

I agree that Sparky should be the very first dog inducted.

As far as people go, Lynn Postema, The Willmings, Pat & Liz, Rob Moomey, Cathi and Brian.

Lynn is a fantastically warm and welcoming event secretary. She remembers everyone and she always smiles, even when you know she has to be stressed out. She is a wonderful representative for UAD.

Sue & Mike require no explanation. They're just so helpful, so welcoming and fun. How many people have competed in a UAD event in Michigan and not met Sue & Mike? Heck, I think most of the Southern people met them this year too! Is there a dog in UAD that Mike has not helped handle on the dock?

Pat, Liz, Rob & Cathi (and Mike) for being brave enough and willing to hold Indy, more than once!

And Brian Wilcox, for being a great judge and showing infinite patience, even when I know it must be worn thin.

I think Brian Butler will be a good future candidate too. He did a great job judging this season.

And I suppose there's the guy who started all this, Milt ...

Edit: Almost forgot to mention Gauge and Zeus. Zeus is an inspiration and Gauge is just a phenomenal athlete and I love to watch him on the dock.

This is a hard decission for me, so many great dogs and people. I know there are a lot of dogs that i we never had a chance to see or meet, so for me the dogs that were on top of there game when i got into the sport. were Guage, Maddy, Dakota, Meadow, Rajah, Sky, to name a few. If I were to choose it would be Gauge,and Maddy. I hope nobodys feelings get heart in over any postings on this topic. Every dog a person that has ben mentioned in this discussion deserved a spot in the hall of fame. Courtney and Sara would be my 2 for people. PS this message board needs a spell check becuase my spelling and gramar suck LOL .

I think we need more direction from Milt. Are we looking for any dog or dogs that meet certain criteria?
What I can do is if people nominate dogs I can create a poll in another topic where you can anonymously vote for your favorite nominee.

Lets not leave out Indy, he has made a name for himself this year and as always is a GREAT communicater!! Kinda reminds me of Hershey in that respect. Indy has good speed and has also improved his jumping distance to a high level. Not to mention a very socially friendly yellow lab who likes to have his ears scratched.

I still think designating a panel to make the decision is the best way to be objective. It will be thier task to evaluate each nominee and come up with each years inductees. I have someone in mind for the panel if a panel of judges is agreed upon.

I agree with Brian. We need a better idea of the qualifications so we can narrow it down to a list of say 10 and then we can vote. Unless Milt wants to decide who who is chosen. I just think we need some qualifiers to narrow this down. So many great people and dogs to choose from... it would be impossible without some selection process.

As I told John, we are basically new for the 2012 year (Ronalee did jump Sadie at two events in 2010) so a lot of the older dogs are not familiar to us. I mentioned 3 dogs in an earlier post but while jogging with Storie this morning a couple of other dogs came to mind that I think deserve mention and consideration.

Checkers and Natasha
Crash and Chip

Thanks.
J.D.

Man this is tough. I like Kel's list : ) MaraLee would be at the top of the list for people for me--she was the face of UAD for me when I started and helped answer all my questions, mentored me into becoming an event secretary, and was just a great friend at the events. I miss seeing the Richardsons at UAD! For dogs: there are just too many to chose from! Some of my top choices would be:
Aro--just one of the coolest GSD's EVER, and showed that a less 'traditional' breed could be successful
Rock--kept jumping into old age, was a great jumping dog, and an entertainer-who could forget the Woo-Woo shuffle?
Chaser Racer--what a personality and what beautiful form in the air
Rajah--a gorgeous jumper and a wonderful ambassador to the breed
Colby--Anna was one of the first people I got to know in UAD and Colby was such a cool jumper, successful at both vertical and big air
Oskar--gotta nominate my boy; he was one of the most consistent jumpers over the years, one of the early GSP's; we started back when 20 feet was a big jump and shoot it got us 4th place overall at our 2nd event and that was with COUNTRY in 1st!! Oskar's got a heart of gold and he's the reason I got into the sport and why I work at UKC. He may not have been the biggest jumper but he's an original to UAD--he also earned the FIRST UKC UAD title : )

I agree that this is a great idea and I can't imagine only picking two especially for the first year!! I agree with everyone's posts and would also like to nominate both of my Veteran's -
Cajun for jumping since Jan 2007 and being the reason for my addiction to this sport!
Champ for just being Champ and jumping since 2008 and a crowd pleaser for sure!! Both on and off the dock!!

Thanks Milt for putting this together!

When a dog / people are nominated are we thinking of certain criteria ?? Are there going to be different categories ?? Here are my initial thoughts:

Sparky - Dog Father
Gauge -what an athlete !
Oskar - goes way back with UAD and still jumps well
Colby - goes way back with UAD and jumped well
Rajah - goes way back with UAD and still jumps well
Duke - goes way back with UAD and still jumps well
Rock - goes way back with UAD and jumped well
Chase - goes way back with UAD and jumped well
Digger - ALL TIME FAVORITE DOG TO WATCH JUMP
Bamba - has ZERO toy drive and has trouble swimming but jumped over 20' when he was 8 1/2 years old, and still is jumping well at 11 years old.
We have SO many dogs from the past and currently jumping that could easily be chosen. I have meet so many wonderful people all over the country be/c of UAD, and I am so very thankful to be part of this huge dog family. Thanks Milt and Brain W for leading this family for almost 8 years.



The people I would nominate for the first year are MaraLee and Joe H. MaraLee work so hard to help get UAD off the ground,created the web site and secretary procedures. Joe can do the work of 3 men when it comes to setting up and breaking down the pool. He can fix what is broken and does all the jobs that no one else wanted to do.

Oh Shoot !!! I also wanted to nominate Tina Toon !
What an incredible woman! When she would come up to the secretary's desk to register I would ask her how she was doing. She would tell me she had a treatment yesterday and was feeling poorly but wanted to be at the event be/c it helped her feel better. She loved her dog(s) and she loved to see Indy jump. What an inspiration.

I need to make a different list for people...

I have also been going back and adding some dogs (as I remember names) to my earlier post.

Milt and Brian Wilcox - for, well, everything.
Sara Chisnell-Voigt - for her work as Secretary at numerous events and as UAD's UKC go-to person.
Avery family - for all their "grunt work" at events, Dan's help in judging, hosting campouts at UAD way back in the day, etc.
Heideman family - for all the "grunt work," help judging, etc.
Lynn Postma - for her great work as Secretary and wrangler
Richardson family - for being there since day 1... doing whatever needed doing.

I'll likely add more later...

LynnSWD wrote:Oh Shoot !!! I also wanted to nominate Tina Toon !
What an incredible woman! When she would come up to the secretary's desk to register I would ask her how she was doing. She would tell me she had a treatment yesterday and was feeling poorly but wanted to be at the event be/c it helped her feel better. She loved her dog(s) and she loved to see Indy jump. What an inspiration.

+1

nash and sky for pearson

I want to add another very special dog to my dog nominations list. Yellow Labrador Retriever, Casey. Some of you may not have met this girl, but those who have been with UAD long-term remember her, I'm sure.

Casey is UAD's only completely BLIND dockjumping dog. During events, Casey would walk, on lead or by the collar (for safety), with her handler to the dock's edge. She would then be let off lead and would jump in at her handler's verbal signal. She did not jump for a toy (not being able to see it to retrieve one)... but only for the positive interaction the sport allowed her to have with her family. Casey then followed her handler's voice towards, up, and over the exit ramp. I believe that the amazing level of trust this girl had in her handler deserves some serious recognition. It was always a joy watching her enjoy the sport so much, and be able to participate in it despite her handicap, her inability to see.

I definitely agree that Sparky should start off the hall of fame. That seems very fitting for UAD.

Unfortunately I've only been a part of the UAD family for the last few years so I don't know all of the dogs. But it really is a family and I love that so many of us can get together with all of our dogs and have such a great time.

As far as people go, I'd like to nominate Jason and Abby Kidd. While both of their dogs are great jumpers, they are also very helpful at all of the events. I know they have helped get the West Michigan club up and running and they are both more than willing to help at events with getting dogs to jump bigger and better.

I have only been jumping for a year so I'm not too familiar with the older dogs, but here are my picks:

Sparky and Milt for all the obvious reasons
Kelly Hodorek and Tommy for introducing me to the sport, practicing with me and Eden, and helping us out at many events
Checkers and Natash for all the enjoyable times watching them as a true "TEAM" perform for the crowd!

It is so hard to nominate just 2 people and 2 dogs because this is one BIG family at UAD. When Ken and I started this in 2007 there were so many people that helped us with everything. When we started everyone so and still is very helpful. But I would like to nominate Gunner/Ken Bialk, he been jumping since 2007 and still jumping and he has a lot of big jumps. I also would like to nominate my dog, Winnie/Shelby, we been jumping since 2008. I always love to hear Milt and Brian call her one of the fastest dogs down the dock. I love this UAD family.

JD posted his nominations, I would like to do the same. I believe for us, there were two key people that helped us this first year,encouraged us, and kept on us to do the right thing for Storie. Those two people are Brian Wilcox -who saw the potential in Storie early on(her second event actually) and really got JD excited and interested in dock jumping too! Brian Wilcox also really helped me when he realized that my anxiety level was pretty high as Storie was really starting to take off in her jumps. Then there is Brian Butler who we showed under many times and were in awe of Sky's individual jumps and thought how cool it would be to jump in the same catagory as her! Brian Butler also kept on both of us to be consistent for Storie's sake and also encouraged us to continue on in her training. (As a side note, I couldn't agree more with the earlier post regarding Brian Butler's family---we first met his mom in West Va and she is so nice, Lisa is great and so is the Dad!!!!). I cannot thank the two Brian's enough for the personal help, encouragement and guidance over this fast first year! I have personally witnessed both of the Brian's taking time with new comers, encouraging them and their dogs! Our time with UAD has been short thus far, but I also must say that I watched Susan/Zoom very closely after meeting/talking to Susan in Van Wert, I told JD that I wanted to follow in Zoom's progress with Storie as I thought Storie was alot like Zoom! Susan also always has a smile on her face and enjoys working with her dog Zoom! We've met so many nice people with UAD events and not knowing many of the "long timers" makes it difficult to nominate individual dogs! Again, I feel that both Brian's are instrumental in our interest with dock jumping and have certainly been great at shows encouraging others(newcomers especially) with their dogs. Getting new people into dock jumping is really what it's all about!

Ok I am going to nominate Merlyn, he started back in 2006 w/ mosseberg and Zues, and I think Ann Williams border chase and many others. As milt would say Merlyn's feet would look like he was taking off like a sprint runner, he would tap them front feet till he was called and then he would let it rip:)

OK as for two dogs i am going to nominate Merlyn, because he is ours and then my second choice is Zues.
now for people I am going to nominate Joe and Kim H and John and Lori caloia, I have meet a lot of people in this sport I have many favorites , but theses two couples are who i pick.
Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year.

Matt & I would like to nominate:
1. Sparky- without Sparky, Milt and Brian would never have started UAD. It was Milts' love of Sparky and Sparkys' love of jumping that started the UAD family.

2. Mossberg-he has been competing with UAD since he was 7 months old at his 1st event in Imlay City September 2005. He held the UAD record for three years, was pretty much unstoppable during that time, unfortunately due to an injury, he hasn't jumped the same for a few years, but hasn't stopped LOVING THE SPORT (nobody tell him he doesn't jump as big anymore, LOL!)

3. Rajah: beautiful jumper and great ambassador for his breed. An absolute pleasure to watch "FLY" through the air!!!

We have such a long list of dogs we would like to nominate but these were our "Top 3"

What fun this is! I haven't been around much lately, and I never got to jump with UAD due to geography, but I sure do love this group - for so many reasons.

I could nominate people, but I'm afraid they'd all be "old timers," as the phrase goes, but I could never single out just a few dogs. Too hard!