Ready, set, go! Sagamore Hills resident Robin Gray released her dog, Krypto, as he sprinted and dove into a pool to compete in the hydro dash at the AKC Diving Dogs Challenge in North Carolina in 2023. ESPN2 cameras filmed Krypto rapidly swimming to retrieve a yellow toy. He then paddled back, finishing within 15.637 seconds.
“Looks very sporty. Nice, lean athletic-looking body. Good drive, good form,” an announcer comments.
“Krypto has been Mr. Perfect. He has lots of drive, always easy to train,” says Gray.
Krypto, 8, and Flash, 2, are sports mixes — part border collie, part Staffordshire terrier and part whippet — that compete in dock diving, flyball and agility. Flyball is a relay sport in which a team of four dogs races side by side against another team. One at a time, each canine runs, leaps over four jumps, gets a ball out of a spring-loaded box and races back. Gray’s dogs are members of the Fur in a Blur team, which has participated in the North American Flyball Association’s CanAm Flyball Classic since 2009. In 2024, Fur in a Blur, which includes Flash and Krypto, placed second in division 5, with a time of 17.964, at the competition held in Indianapolis.
At the All Breed Training Club of Akron, Krypto and Flash also participate in an American Kennel Club Agility League. They run different courses, including a recent setup featuring jumps, weaves, a teeter, an A-frame and a tunnel that the dogs navigate while their owner directs them. “It’s quite fun,” Gray says. “It’s a good way to train the dogs to be good dogs.”
Krypto and Flash enjoy dock diving so much that they get excited when they drive up to the indoor and outdoor dock diving pools at Duke’s K9 Dash N’ Splash. “They know when they get off the Turnpike where they’re going, they start screaming,” she says.
For dock diving, dogs run down a 50-foot-long platform as their owner throws a toy. The pooches then jump into the pool after it. At the 2024 North America Diving Dogs championship in Springfield, Missouri, Flash nabbed first place in the elite division of distance jump open with an astounding jump of 27 feet, 11 inches — and Krypto got first place in the veterans master division of hydro dash with an impressive time of 14.247 seconds.
“It requires training and fearlessness, and they love to do it,” says Gray.
To Gray, seeing her dogs succeed is a treat. Both dogs love being athletes.
“Krypto likes running really fast. He enjoys it. I think he likes the competition of it too,” Gray says. As for
Flash? “He likes jumping with wild abandonment.”
Mal McCrea
Mal McCrea
Mal McCrea
Mal McCrea
