Mark Muir and his dog Thunder do their thing during the Freestyle competition of the Skyhoundz World Championships at Camp Jordan on Wednesday.
Some of the greatest athletes in the world gathered this week at Camp Jordan Park, albeit the athletes were of the four-legged variety.
The Skyhoundz World Canine Disc Championships were conducted for the third time at the park, as people and their agile dogs came from all over the world to participate. The finals of the championships will be held this weekend at Coolidge Park in Chattanooga.
“We’ve got people from all over including Canada, Italy, China, Japan, Columbia and Argentina,” said Blake Kilbourne from Yorktown, Virginia, who was a judge in the freestyle event. “We’ve got more than 80 dogs participating. To qualify here they had to win events from around the country.
The events on Wednesday included a Disc Dogathon, a Bullseye event and Freestyle.
In the Disc Dogathon, the dogs will chase after a flying disc thrown by its two-legged counterpart. The object of the event is to see how far the handler can throw the disc and the dog sprint to catch it in a given period of time.
The Bullseye competition is also a timed event. The handler stands inside a series of concentric circles and throws the disc to various circles. If the dog catches in the inner ring it is awarded points. More points are awarded to catches made within the farthest circle.
The Freestyle event is a subjectively judged, timed event. The handler and the dog put on a trick show to music. The judges use something called PAWS criteria. Paws stands for “Presentation, Athleticism, ‘Wow-factor’ and Success (in terms of catching the disc).
Mark Muir, a seven-time World Champion from Atlanta, and his dog, Thunder, put on quite an exhibition in the Freestyle Event.
“All dogs like to chase things,” said the recently-retired firefighter. “You just turn that piece of plastic into an animal. It’s nothing but predatory instinct.”
Muir, who was a firefighter for 27 years, said he has taken 50 international trips teaching the sport. In addition, he and people into the sport put on exhibitions for the NFL and Major League Baseball.
“All it takes is patience,” he said.
Disc Dogathon competitors in the Skyhoundz World Championships Wednesday at Camp Jordan.
