Wanted: dogs that can hang 20
Call it a canine cattle call.
About 130 dogs Monday splashed and slip-slid their way through a watery audition for surfing and diving roles on a pet food company’s float in the upcoming Rose Parade.
Onlookers and judges got drenched by Labradors leaping into a 4-foot-deep water tank in Pacoima. Then their owners were showered when the animals climbed out of the water and wildly shook off.
Contestants that just barked at the skim board instead of riding it down a watery ramp were sent to the dog house.
Seven-year-old Quinn Hettich of Arcadia knelt on a specially constructed “dock” and aimed an excited Staffordshire bull terrier named Bubbles toward the water tank a few feet below. Then he let go.
The 10-year-old pooch jumped off the dock and belly-flopped into the water with a huge splash. Quinn threw up his arms in victory.
The dog was deemed a contender for one of the dozen spots open to skim board and dive aboard a float sponsored by Natural Balance Pet Foods. Bubbles is actually owned by a friend, Melissa Ness of Ramona, said Randy Hettich, the boy’s father.
Quinn confided that he skipped his second-grade class Monday to attend the audition. He said his birthday is Jan. 1, so he might get to celebrate it by riding with Bubbles in the Pasadena parade.
Joey Herrick, the pet food firm’s president, said previous company floats have featured skateboarding and snowboarding dogs. This New Year’s version will cost about $300,000, he said.
With its 4,000 gallons of water, the float will weigh more than 35 tons and will be 113 feet long, said its designer, Raul R. Rodriguez.
Herrick watched a 2-year-old yellow Lab named Titan stand at the edge of the diving dock and then turn tail. Owner Michelle Clifton of Palmdale didn’t nudge him into the water.
“We had fun. That’s what counts,” Herrick said with a shrug after she conceded that Titan was probably out of contention.
Other animals auditioning included Antonio, a 4-year-old mixed-breed dog who normally surfs in the ocean. “One day three years ago when we were at the beach, he jumped on another dog’s board and didn’t want to get off,” said owner Patti Walsh of Escondido.
Kathryn Segura, a Studio City activist who rescues abused dogs, was there with a 1 1/2-year-old Jack Russell terrier mix named Foxy. “Your dog pretty much tells you what it can and cannot do,” Segura explained.
Foxy’s message turned out to be, “I don’t want to have anything to do with that skim board.”
Owners of the winning dogs will be notified Wednesday or Thursday. After that, they’ll train at the Pacoima company’s dock-diving tank and skim board ramp twice a week through the end of December, said Kathy Sun, Natural Balance’s project coordinator.
That regimen may leave some owners howling.
