Submitted Photo Kayla Wolff and her dogs, Bailey, Bentley and Boston, pause to celebrate their participation, and Boston’s second place award, at the 2021 DockDogs World Championships in Iowa in October.

BURLINGTON — Golden Retrievers Bentley and Boston represented themselves well at the 2021 DockDogs World Championships in Dubuque, Iowa, last month.

Boston finished second in Big Air in his Novice division, while Bentley posted strong showings in Iron Dog Gladiator and Top Gun Extreme Vertical in the competition Oct. 12-17.

“Bentley didn’t make finals, but he came home with scores that I couldn’t be more proud of. These scores will be awesome for his Golden Retriever rankings,” said handler Kayla Wolff of Burlington.

As part of the Iron Dog competition, Bentley posted a Speed Retrieve time of 6.887 seconds in his Turbo division that was above the cut-off required for dogs to compete in the next highest, Nitro, division.

“That was pretty exciting,” Wolff said. “He swam a new personal best, which is amazing. And then he also grabbed 6 feet 8 inches again in Extreme Vertical. That was amazing.”

Extreme Vertical is a “high jump” for dogs in which they jump up to a bumper toy extended from the end of the dock over the water.

“He’s tied that four times now. We’re going to work on his strides this winter to see if I move him at all — if we can maybe, hopefully, grab that 6 feet 10 inches someday,” Wolff said.

She said Bentley almost had a personal best in the Iron Dog competition, which is a combination of event scores.

“But we got a really good Iron Dog score, which will go towards his Iron Dog rankings for Golden Retrievers this season,” Wolff said. Bentley previously has been ranked the top Golden Retriever in DockDogs competition in Extreme Vertical and Iron Dog and the second Golden Retriever in Big Air for his dock diving distance. He leapt for 23 feet, 1 inch in the Big Air portion of the Iron Dog competition last month.

Wolff said he needs another Iron Dog competition to have enough scores for an updated ranking. The next competition for Wolff’s dogs will be in Bismarck in February.

Boston, an offspring of Bentley, made the Tier 6 World Championship Big Air Finals, where he took second place with a jump of 9 feet 11 inches.

Bailey was entered in Speed Retrieve in the Express division but timed out so posted no scores.

“She just wasn’t having it. But she was there for fun,” Wolff said. “Bailey had a great time socializing with everyone and going for multiple walks during her off time.”

Wolff said the competition included more than 480 dogs and 716 event entries. In addition to competition awards, several other recognitions were given.

Wolff and Bentley received nominations for “Most Exciting Team” and “Most Inspiring Team.”

“We didn’t win, but it was just an honor to be nominated by our DockDog peers,” Wolff said.