TRAVERSE CITY — In a state surrounded by water, a lot of dogs are no strangers to making a running jump from the end of a dock.
But not every dog can win a medal for it.
For the 18th year, the Ultimate Air Dogs competition is coming to the Traverse City Cherry Festival.
“To the core, it’s people having fun with their dogs,” Brian Wilcox, cofounder of UAD said. He and his father Milt Wilcox, a former pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, started the company in 2004.
Milt said it all started when his dog, Sparky, was jumping off a dock into Torch Lake. At the same time, the TV was on, and ESPN was broadcasting a dock jumping competition.
“I said, ‘Sparky can do that!’” Milt said. And Sparky went on to win his first competition, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
During the last 20 years, Milt said he and his son didn’t just learn how to haul trailers across the country, although there was plenty of that. They also learned how to work a crowd and be entertainers.
“The reason we were brought into the Cherry Festival … was to appeal to the locals,” he said.
And even in recent years, he said, three-quarters of the crowd are still local residents.
Now UAD does 90 events every year with clubs and facilities all over the United States. Brian Wilcox said they have devoted participants who will follow the competition around the country to get to Nationals.
At the Cherry Festival, five lucky — or skilled — pups will make it to the finals on Saturday, July 6, after two days of competition on July 4 and July 5. Brian said he’s expecting a turnout of up to 70 dogs over the course of the weekend.
Contestants come from all over the country to participate, including New York, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Ken Bialk, from Grand Rapids, has been with the competition since it started in Traverse City.
“I met Milt and Brian Wilcox by the Holiday Inn 18 years ago, helped them set up,” he said. “And I said, ‘Next year, I’ll compete!’”
A year before, in 2005, Bialk had rescued a lab named Gunner in Grand Rapids. He said the dog was skinny when he got him, but looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger “when I was done with him.”
Gunner began a career of winning after taking first place in a Grand Rapids dock jumping event.
“I got him when he was 2, and he jumped until he was 11,” Bialk said. “He got so many medals from all these competitions.”
Bialk is planning on coming to the UAD competition at Cherry Fest, but he doesn’t have a dog in the race any more.
“I have three labs at home, but they’re not jumpers,” he said. “It’s just not the same without Gunner.”