A dog with a bad habit put it to good use by winning a national championship.
Melissa Ness of Ramona told the Ramona Sentinel that her dog Smoke, a 2-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever, leapt into her life after his Arizona owners gave up on him after he totalled their back yard. He also had a bad habit of jumping over the fence.
Now you noticed that, right, but did his owners? No.
Since his adoption, Smoke has won multiple awards, including a recent first-place finish in the diving dog competition at the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge. His 30-foot, 3-inch leap off a dock on Oct. 3 in Missouri wowed Ness.
“Anything over 23 feet is huge,” Ness told the paper.
Naturally, if you're giving out diving medals to dogs, you go to the best to hand them out: Olympic gold medalist diver Greg Louganis, who was in town with his Jack Russell, was there to complete the tale.
Smoke was dogged in the competition by his housemate, Henry, who's also a Chesapeake -- he's owned by Barbara Henderson of Carlsbad and is living with Ness while he trains.
Don't feel bad for Hank, though: He took second place in Missouri and nosed out Smoke in San Diego when the pair competed at the county fair in June to qualify for the national event.
