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CONGRATULATIONS!
To Oskar Chisnell-Voigt, the first dog in history to earn a dock jumping title with the UKC at the Twin Cities Pet Expo in Minnesota! Click on Oskar's picture to see his special feature on the UKC site.













Oskar and Sara at the 2006 Pet-a-Palooza
Photo by Linda Kelly






KEL'S ARTICLE ON DOCK DIVING
Please, click on the photo to open Kel's fantastic and informative new article on Dock Diving, "Thru the Air."








Aro and Kel at the 2005 Hogs & Dogs Event
Photo by MaraLee Richardson

CONGRATULATIONS PURINA EIGHT! 
The following 8 Winners of UAD's Purina Rounds have been invited to compete in a televised Purina IDC Regional competition at the Central Florida Fair, near Orlando, FL. on April 25-26, 2008.

Sara Chisnell-Voigt, Esquire has been a priceless asset to Ultimate Air Dogs, through her endless efforts to promote the sport of Dock Jumping across the U.S.A, ever since her first event, the Woods-n-Water News Outdoor Weekend, in Imlay City, Michigan in 2005.

For a little history on Sara, her love of animals began with horses as a young girl. Amazingly, this petite beauty could muck a stall and handle enormous horses alongside grown men. She was not intimidated by anything.

She was swept off her feet by the dashing Scott Voigt while doing their undergrad at Otterbein College, in Westerville, Ohio. They were married a year after her graduation with honors in 2003. Lucky for us, fate brought the newlyweds to Michigan when Scott opened a Sauder Furniture store in Grand Rapids and Sara attended law school at Michigan State. After graduating in 2005, she went on to pass both the Kentucky and Michigan Bar Exams!

They have a family of three dog children. In college, Sara adopted her now seven year old weimaraner, Fiona, who you probably will not see on the dock, as she is not a big fan of water.

Their handsome German Short-haired Pointer, Oskar on the other hand, loves dock jumping. Over the past two years, Oskar and Sara have participated in Ultimate Air Dogs, Splash Dogs, Wonder Dogs and Dock Dogs events in over eight states. They competed in the 2006 and 2007 Ultimate Air Games. They also competed in the 2006 Dock Dogs Nationals. His personal best is a world class distance of 22 feet, 2 inches jumped at the 2007 Rock Classic in Long Island, New York. In 2007, he was the 29^th  ranked dog in the nation with Ultimate Air Dogs, earning a highly prestigious Master IV title, which means that he jumped farther than twenty feet over twenty-five times in one year!

The baby of the Chisnell-Voigt family is an spunky two year old Australian Cattle Dog, named Carly. Sara and Carly have been training for free style disc competitions, and plan to train with Ron Watson and Apryl Lea, professional trainers and owners of the Art of K-9disc. Last year, Carly was featured in their local newspaper after winning a sweet trophy at the Portland Riverfest Dog Competition for doing obedience and disc tricks.

As her husband says, she is “totally obsessed with trying new things with her dogs.” Her desire to become more involved in the sport led to her volunteering as my Assistant Secretary for the first time at our 2005 Hogs-n-Dogs event, which was a fundraiser for rescues from the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe.  Just like everything that Sara sets her mind on doing, she quickly mastered the Event Secretary duties working almost every single UAD event since, along with some Splash Dogs events around the country. She has even worked the 2006 and 2007 Cynosport World Games, in Arizona.

For the last five months, since landing her dream job at the United Kennel Club in the Problem Resolution and Correspondence Departments, she has poured her heart and soul into building the partnership between UAD and UKC, writing and fine-tuning the rules and policies which have enabled dock jumping to become a recognized sport by the UKC, with UAD events earning points and titles that will be recorded on participating dogs’ permanent UKC registrations. This stellar step in validating the sport of dock jumping will open the dock to hundreds of thousands of dog lovers worldwide.

As her husband said, “This isn’t just a job for Sara. It is what she loves to do.”

Please, forgive me if there are any errors, in order to keep this a surprise, most of the details came from my memory and the greatly appreciated help of her husband, Scott, who deserves his own appreciation day.

There are so many more amazing things about Sara than what I have included. She dreams of skijoring with Oskar, weight-pulling and getting a Coonhound, so that she can coon hunt.

Her enormous heart has led her to doing pro-bono work fighting to protect rescued horses from being illegally sold to slaughter. She also ran in the 2007 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to earn funds for breast cancer research.

I would like to personally thank Sara for everything she has done for not only our sport, but as my dear friend. She is far more than a fellow lover of dock jumping, she is a friend for life.

Monday, February 11^th, 2008 is officially Sara Appreciation Day.  Please, join us on the UAD Forum, if you would like to share a special message to Sara.  http://ultimateair.dogsboard.net/

Thank you, Sara!__________________________________________________________________________________
Latest Event Information  
Pre-registration has closed for the Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Jacksonville events. However, there are still spots left in all three events, so come on down and join us! Just remember to show up an hour before whichever activity you wish to enter. 

For the Minnesota and Pennsylvania events, there will be a Competitor List at the Security gate. One person will get free admission with One Dog.
There is no admission being charged at the Jacksonville Humane Society event.