Does anyone do dock jumping with their dog(s)?

I have some questions about the possibilities of clicker training it with a low-medium drive dog.

I think to be successful at dock diving, your dog needs to have good drive to swim AND for a toy. I know plenty of dogs that go nuts for toys but when you add water to the equation they go out of drive. I have Malinois friends who have dogs that excel at this but I personally haven't tried it. I think Raine would be great at it, she's a swimming, leaping and retrieving fiend. If I had access to a dock, it would be something fun to do with her for exercise.

It wouldn't be something I would put a dog through unless they showed me they really wanted to do it.

I think good trainers let the dogs tell them what they most like and then work with that, instead of doing activities with dogs that the owner thinks are cool and the dog has little to no aptitude or drive for.

Two examples come to my mind right away, 1) a lady who trains agility at the same place I do with 2 VERY low drive dogs... these dogs would rather be anywhere else than on the agility course.
2) the guitar lessons my mom took me to when I was in 2nd grade! I wanted to be riding horses, not playing guitar. Even a treat (Dairy Queen) after each lesson didn't make me enjoy the process even though I did it.

JMO.

 Quote: Cindy Easton Rhodes

I think good trainers let the dogs tell them what they most like and then work with that, instead of doing activities with dogs that the owner thinks are cool and the dog has little to no aptitude or drive for.

I don't know anything about dock jumping specifically, but Cindy makes a great point in general, regarding work and training. Just like with people, a dog who trains for something it really enjoys will excell much further and faster than one who could care less about the task. (not to say Anne's dog won't enjoy dock diving , just thought that was a nice initial response, given that the dog in question has known low drive... maybe she still LOVES the water!)

~Natalya

I agree. It's no fun if the dog isn't having fun.

I'm just exploring possibilities - for fun, not for sport or commpetition.

This dog has no retrieving abilities, no interest in plastic toys and certainly no interest in disc (frisbee). I started clicker training disc yesterday out of curiousity and today she's going into drive for the disc, retrieving (poorly ), catching rollers and flips.

I'm so shocked by this that I wonder how much I've held my dog back by saying that "she can't do that" or that "she won't have fun doing that" or "she can't retrieve."