The Topsfield Fair is known for housing pigs, rabbits, cows and other farm animals — but fairgoers may notice a surplus of dogs at this year’s fair.
That’s because of Dock Dogs, which made its debut at the 2024 Topsfield Fair when it opened for an 11-day run on Friday, Oct. 4.
The canine aquatic competition judges dogs on how far or high they can jump into a pool of water, as well as how fast they can retrieve objects.
The national competition, based in Medina, Ohio, travels across the country, making stops at fairs such as Topsfield and the Hopkinton State Fair in New Hampshire. That was where Hailey Perry, of Sanbornton, New Hampshire, and her golden retriever Aspen first got into Dock Dogs.
“We just did it kind of for fun,” Perry told MassLive. “She just loves water and she took to it immediately.”
The Topsfield Fair was Aspen’s second time competing in Dock Dogs. Perry likes the competition because it pushes her and Aspen to keep stepping up their game.
“It’s nice because you’re competing with yourself,” she said. “Even though you are you are looking at other dogs’ numbers and basing it off of what their previous jumps were.”
Dock Dogs consists of three different jumps, including Big Air, Extreme Vertical and Speed Retrieve.
Big Air is a long-distance jump while Extreme Vertical measures how high dogs jump.
Speed Retrieve — involving the combination of run, jump and swim — times dogs on how fast they can retrieve an object from the water.
For the Big Air event, all dogs jump together during the first wave before being divided into different groups. Every dog gets two jumps and the judges take the better jump to put dogs in groups ranging from novice to professional.
“Obviously a nine-foot jumping dog isn’t going to be competing against a 25-foot jumping dog,” Morgan Syring with Dock Dogs said. “So we do break it down so that it’s fair for everybody and everyone can play.”
Any dog is welcome to join the competition, no matter their experience level, size or stature.
“We are not breed discriminatory, so we let all dogs compete no matter how tall, short, fat or tall they are,” Syring said.
Dock Dogs staff will even help get your dog ready to compete.
“We’ll help you get started if you want to come out this weekend and start trying it at Topsfield,” Syring said.
She suggests that those looking to enter their dogs in the competition head to the Topsfield Fair Saturday while there’s still time to enter. It costs $38 to register a dog and all competitions occur at the Grandstand.
The second and third waves of the Big Air competition are scheduled for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday. The Extreme Vertical competition is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
The fourth wave of the Big Air competition is at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6, while the Speed Retrieve all-in-one finals are at 1:30 p.m. The Dock Dogs Big Air finals are at 4 p.m., where the winning dog will be crowned.
Winners get Dock Dogs credits that can be used toward entering more Dock Dogs competitions in the future. They also get a cash prize that varies based on the event.
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