New to Doc Jumping

[flyinJRT]

I am pretty much a novice to dock jumping, although I have jumped friend's dogs, I personally have never had a dog that will do it. I have a JRT who has luxated patellas with significant arthritic changes in one of his knees that he had surgery in at a young age. His therapy and excersize is swimming in the pool, I put a swim vest on him since he doesn't swim well without it,but it has given him incredible confidence and he has started jumping of the side, he LOVES it and is having a blast, my other JRT who is 9 months old is also jumping off the side of the pool and seems to really enjoy it, Im hoping to try him out at Wags! I would really like to try Wyatt out at Wags also, but I am concerned about the tork on his knees so,
my question to you all is, what kind of "tork" is but on the knees as they jump off the dock? I realize without getting a running start, they can't jump far but, then I would do it with Wyatt for fun for him and not how far he can jump. He can no longer compete in agility and I would love for him to have this outlet. What is everyone's opinion on this?

[Sassy Girl]

The amount of tork on a dog's knees while competing in dock diving is hard to determine as each dog is different. I can tell you that I have 4 dogs who have competed in the sport that range in age from 8 months to 13 1/2 yrs old, all launch differently and with different momentum. I would allow him to try it out and really monitor him throughout a competition weekend, don't over do it, but see where his comfort level is and go from there.

My oldest dog Sassy has degenerative disk disease and cauda equina syndrome, she was too old to be a surgical candidate so we are living with it. She was dock jumping for months at our practice site without any lameness (she only launches from the end of the dock and goes maybe 5 feet) so I decided to let her debut in competition on her 13th birthday. She was fine throughout the weekend of competition without any issues or lameness. She does not exert herself the same as any younger dog would, she has learned to work with the body she has. This spring I decided not to return her to dock jumping as we had a rough winter with her ailments and so she is now retired.