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THUNDER
Sharon Rodgers, Secretary
Email Sharon
Thunder's Website
Keystone Club
Thunder is a muscular Black Lab adopted on May 6, 2006 from Lab Rescue (Thunder's Happy Ending). He was born approximately November 2004 but I celebrate his adoption day instead. Thunder's first DockDogs event was in June 206 where he jumped in the Senior Division. All through 2006 and his first 2007 event he stayed in the Senior Division. In March 2007 at Pawsabilities, Thunder's brain finally connected to all those muscles, he sat and STAYED on the dock, and BOOMED - jumping into the Master and Elite Divisions. His National Personal Best is 22' 6" earned at Manheim (7/2007) and his Regional Personal Best is 24' 2" earned at Gander Mountain (4/2007).
I wanted Thunder to try Extreme Vertical at the Labs & Abs Training Facility in May 2007. He was all the way up to around 6' 4" when Buddy decided to retrieve the tape measure from Angie, dropped it, and it sank to the bottom of the pond. EV practice was called on account of no one willing to jump in and fetch the tape measure but he sure had loads of fun that day! Thunder decided to try EV officially at Quakertown PA in June. He BOOMED again and jumped his way up to a Personal Best of 5' 8". At the Codorus Summer Blast, Thunder worked hard for a new Regional EV Personal Best of 6' 6" - jumping all the way from 5' 4" all by himself and grabbing the bumper every two inches. He matched his Regional EV Personal Best with a new National Personal Best of 6' 6" at the Kiki Classic in September 2007.
Thunder is a very high energy lab who defines the phrase "A tired lab is a good lab". Every day, I try to play ball with him (either at the baseball field or into the water) for about 30 minutes, walk 1.5 miles, then play ball for another 30 minutes. If it's cool out, we'll throw in another 1.5 mile walk at the end. Luckily, I live a block from the water where he can swim all the time - even if there's ice on the water. We also go kayaking but he's learned he can "retrieve" me when he's ready to go back to shore. Thunder greatly amuses the fishermen and other boaters when he grabs his leash and tows me in backwards. The benefits of all this exercise is that he's a couch potato in the evening and loves to just hang out. To sum Thunder up, he's a ball crazy lab (O.C. Doggie) who loves walks swimming, playing ball, "helping" around the house, being a couch 'tater, and playing with all his DockDogs friends especially Buddy and Lil' Miss Daisy Lou. Daisy Lou, out of all his other good friends who he competes and plays with, is his very best friend and he loves to travel with her to all the DockDogs Events so they can canoodle together in the car and hotel room. Eat your heart out boys!!
TITLES:
EV Top Gun, National - August 2007
EV Top Gun, Regional - June 2007
EV Cadet, National - June 2007
Master National Title - June 2007
Elite Regional Title - April 2007
Master Regional Title - April 2007
Senior National Title - August 2006
Personal Bests:
Regional & National EV - 6' 6"
Regional Big Air - 24' 2"
National Big Air - 22' 6"
2007 Chesapeake DockDogs Awards:
Highest Top Gun Grab (tie) - Sharon Rodgers & Thunder - 6' 6"
Most Improved from 2006 Regional - Sharon Rodgers & Thunder - 7' 6"
Over 5' Improvement from 2006 National - Sharon Rodgers & Thunder - 6' 1"
Over 5' Improvement During 2007 National - Sharon Rodgers & Thunder - 5' 1"
2007 National Rankings:
73rd Overall Big Air - 21' 4.8"
37th Overall Extreme Vertical - 6' 6"
36th Master Titled - 21' 4.8"
16th Labrador Retriever - Black - 21' 4.8"
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Thunder & Buddy
Fall 2007
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Thunder & Daisy Lou
Practice 2007
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Daisy Lou & Thunder
Halloween 2007
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Chesapeake 2008
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Lilypons 2007
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Suffolk 2007
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Christmas Bone 2006
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Playing Ball in the Snow 2007
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Very tired Thunder in Chicago 2007
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Roanoke 2007
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Cadet EV Frederick 2007
Became Top Gun with 6' 6"
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Kiki Classic 2007
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