Dogs Catching Ultimate Air Are Fan Favorite

They’re not race drivers, country music stars or a bevy of beauties representing a NACAR sponsor.

But with each passing year, the Purina Ultimate Air Dogs continue to be one of the biggest draws at the Food City Family Race Night.

Hundreds of people gathered around the 41 feet by 21 feet diving pool in the nearly 90-degree heat Thursday to watch black and yellow Labrador retrievers, Belgian shepherds, and their tiny but fun fellow “jumpers,” Jack Russell terriers. 

The dogs’ owners toss toys, such as rubber chickens, into the far end of the pool to get their pets fired up. Then, the pooches are released at the end of a long ramp. With a running burst they leave the ramp and fly into the air, sometimes reaching as far as 25 feet.

“It’s an amazing thing to see, and the splash of water doesn’t feel too bad either,” said Harlan Gambill of Bristol, Va. “I’ve seen them on ESPN before. Me and my wife love dogs, and you can’t get a cat to do that.” 

The large crowd seemed very pleased, especially when a dog would land in the water. They answered the efforts with words and phrases, such as “Whoa!,” and “Whee,” and “That dog can swim better than I can!”

Milt Wilcox, the show’s front man, played major league baseball with the Detroit Tigers for 16 years. When he retired, he stayed in the Detroit area, bought a couple dogs and started acquiring the needed equipment with some help from Purina.

“I got a black Lab and named him Sparky Anderson Wilcox,” he said, referencing the name to former Tigers’ manager Sparky Anderson. “Now, we go around the country. I guess you could call me a carnie.”

Wilcox not only drives a truckload of equipment around the country, he also grabs a microphone and talks the crowds through the shows, tossing in bits of humor along the way.

“It’s something people don’t get to see very often, and there’s definitely a ‘wow factor’ to it,” he said. “We’ve been on the Letterman Show, Good Morning America and others.”

When Wilcox started the jumping shows in 2001, there were less than 300 dogs nationwide vying for the champion distance jumper. Today, there are more than 14,000 dogs giving the sport a shot, he said.

Lora Zigan, from Columbus, Ohio, is a dog owner who made her first appearance Thursday on the dog-jumping circuit. She owns Hera, a black lab, and Apollo, a yellow lab.

“I was at an expo in Chicago with my son when we first saw an exhibition,” she said as she prepared the dogs for a leap. “We got a swimming pool at home, and they just starting jumping in after stuff.”

Zigan soon joined a forum on the group’s Web site, and that’s when she decided to take her dogs on the road.

“Obviously, you bond with your dog, and this is a social event that is fulfilling for both me and the dogs.”

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