2012 World Championship Boatyard Dog Trials
The canine kookiness of the World Championship Boatyard Dog® Trials began with a parade of the competing dogs and their handlers plus Shriners in go-karts, puffins from Project Puffin, dogs from local shelters, and the newly crowned Maine Sea Goddess Alexandra Dienesch-Calamari and Crown Princess Emma Mason, all of whom were led by bagpiper Chris Pinchbeck to the waterfront.
To kick things off, the 2011 World Champion, Fenway, and her handler Office Joel Neal of the Rockland Police Department, did a double somersault into the water, and Bill Page tantalized all the competing canines by hitting balls far out into the water with his Buoy Bat. Each team of competitors then successfully completed the required parts of the competition—the Dockside Obstacle Course and the Dinghy Hop—and performed their freestyle routines with hula hoops. The requirement of getting wet fell mostly to the humans, as dog after dog refused to plunge into the ocean… all except for one, a black Lab-is kind named Otter.
Judges were: Dale Dyer of Custom Float Services;Lucinda Lang, spaniel aficionado, of Legacy Properties Sotheby's International in Camden; Dr. Bjorn Lee of Pen Bay Veterinary Associates in Rockport; and Gretchen Piston Ogden, Managing Editor of Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors magazine.
The trials were again emceed by Mike Joyce and Alan Sprague, the garrulous co-hosts of WERU-FM’s call-in show “Boattalk” (89.9 FM and
www.weru.org).
For a visual overview of the Boatyard Dog Trials visit the gallery
Click Here
2012 BYD Winner: Otter
The clear winner was Otter and her young handlers Phoebe and Jane. Not only did Otter willingly go into the water, it was a challenge to convince her to stop swimming long enough to perform her dockside tricks. A well-rounded canine, Otter is also a poet, and plans to use her win as a stepping stone to further her pawblishing endeavors.
2012 Contestants:
2012 People’s Choice Winner: Duff
The third-annual Boatyard Dog “People’s Choice” award—in which show-goers vote for their favorite competing dog with their dollars—went to Duff by a nose (well, by $1.25, since the $500 in Monopoly money that was found in Duff’s ballot box was disallowed). Despite being aquaphobic, Duff, a rescue dog from Alabama, jumped into a kayak during the trials, and bravely helped rescue three toy kittens from the drink.
The voting public contributed $308.66, which was split and donated equally to the
Humane Society of Knox County and the
PAWS Animal Adoption Center in Camden.
Save The Date for the 11th Annual Boatyard Dog Trials:
Sunday, August 11, 2013
For information on how to apply, click HERE!
Click here for a video of
the 2011 Boatyard Dog trials.
To read the 2012 BYD press release
click here.
