MUSCATINE, Iowa – The Shafer family and their long-jumping pooch, Chessie, will participate in a national dock diving competition in Cincinnati this weekend. While vying for titles they will also raise money for Chase Away K9 Cancer in honor of their former family dog, Berkeley.

“We adopted her when she was 5 1/2 weeks old,”  Laura Shafer said of Berkeley. “We had her before we had kids. She was our child.”

Berkeley, a lab mix, had to be put to sleep in July 2007 due to complications of liver cancer. They began raising money for canine cancer research as a way to honor her memory.

Laura and her husband, Bob, have two children, Leigh, 9, and Dylan, 7. The entire family, including Chessie, participates in dock diving because the dog has the talent and the family enjoys the camaraderie. In dock diving a dog jumps from a dock to retrieve a toy that’s been tossed into the water by its handler.

“This charity is especially meaningful to us as we lost Berkeley two years ago, and consequently adopted Chessie, who is an active participant in the DockDogs program,” Laura Shafer said.

DockDogs is an international organization that is the sanctioning body and promotes the sport of dock diving.

The Shafers adopted Chessie from the Muscatine Humane Society after Berkeley’s death and soon noticed the Chesapeake Bay retriever was fond of water and ran fast. It wasn’t long before the started entering Chessie in dock diving competitions. Chessie’s longest jump is 20.6-feet.

The Shafers are collecting pledges for the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine’s Chase Away K9 Cancer Jump-a-Thon. People can either pledge money based on the distance Chessie jumps, or  they can donate a set amount. Chessie will compete at the DockDogs National Championships in Cincinnati on Friday and Saturday, and if all goes well, in Sunday’s finals.

Chessie and the family will have a lot of competition as dock divers from across the country will participate. They hope to win championship titles and have their fees for DockDogs paid for next year.

Leigh, Dylan and Laura have all earned DockDogs titles and will compete this weekend. Laura can get Chessie to jump the farthest, about 18-feet; Dylan jumps the dog at about 13-feet and Leigh gets Chessie airborne for about 8-foot jumps.

They have raised about $400 so far but hope to double or triple the amount.