Yough student earns national title at Florida dog-diving championship
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It was 25 degrees in Mt. Pleasant Township on Thursday, but that didn’t stop a German short-haired pointer from going muzzle and paw first into a pool to retrieve one of his favorite toys.
Caesar was at Rustic Lodge Diving Dogs, and thankfully inside the organization’s heated training center on Liberty Street.
It’s there that he and 15-year-old handler Bryce Martino originally began their journey to the ultimate prize: the NADD/AKC National Championship, held this month in Orlando, Fla. (For the record, NADD/AKC stands for North American Diving Dogs and American Kennel Club.)
Martino, of Irwin, came home with the title of 2019 Junior Handler Champion, and the Rustic Lodge team of six humans and a dozen canines brought back three additional championships and 10 other top-10 national placements.
Not bad for a diving-dog group that only got started in April.
“We had a fantastic performance,” said Rustic Lodge owner Ally Strother, who along with her husband, Brent, also owns and operates Rustic Lodge Gun Dogs out of New Salem, Fayette County.
Martino, a sophomore at Yough High School, said the gun lodge was how he got his start working with Strother’s dogs and with Caesar, in particular.
“I’ve hunted with their dogs since I was 12 and it kind of evolved into finding out some more about them, which led to giving the competition a try,” he said.
Strother said she first got into dock diving during the hunting off-season.
“I enjoyed it so much, we opened this place up,” she said of Rustic Lodge Diving Dogs.
Dogs and their handlers spend most of the season trying to qualify for the national championships. Martino and Caesar went through five local and regional competitions to earn a spot in Orlando.
“There’s a lot of stiff competition,” Martino said of going against more than 200 dogs, which mostly had adult trainers.
Martino said a good competition dog needs “a lot of muscle and speed, and I have to know where to throw the toy, how high and whether I need to throw it to the left or the right.”
Getting a competition dog excited for its jump also is a big part of a good dock dive. Both Martino and Strother worked to get Caesar amped up as he prepared for his dive, with Strother shouting and Martino banging the bright yellow, tassel-covered toy off the front of the dock.
When all was said and done, Martino had come away with the 2019 Junior Handler Championship, and earned fifth place in the Open Distance Senior competition.
Other Rustic Lodge handler-dog teams won titles as the 2019 Air Retrieve, Master Air Retrieve and Elite Open Distance champions.
In addition to training for competition, Rustic Lodge is also open to the public, offering individual and group classes, as well as pool time for dogs whose vets have recommended swimming as a low-impact form of exercise.
Martino recently acquired a puppy, which undoubtly is destined for dock diving. But his first trip to the national championship was about more than a medal.
“I really liked being with my parents and the dogs,” he said, “and the competition was a lot of fun.”