SANDY PAWS & WAGGING TAILS RETURN TO FIRST POINT

The VetShopAustralia.com.au Surfing Dog Championships will be back on the shores of Laguna Bay for a seventh consecutive year in 2018.
 

A firm favourite for not just locals, but also national and international visitors to Noosa, images and film of the dogs are shared across the world to hundreds of thousands of viewers. The surfing dogs will once more be donning their rash vests, zinc-ing up their noses and taking to the waves, but this time with a couple of new tricks up their furry sleeves!
VetShopAustralia will be running free workshops in the lead-up to next year’s event, perennial competitor Paul Jones sharing tips and skills for surfing dogs and their two-legged co-pilots. All are invited to these unique workshops, helping owners to better connect with their dogs through standup paddling, as well as back on dry land, assisting and improving training and bonding skills.
After a busy year, ‘Mr DogSurf’, Chris De Aboitiz, and his SupDogOz team are looking forward to returning to Noosa next March:
“The Noosa Festival with the VetShopAustralia team was such a good vibe this year,” says Chris. “We loved the massive turn out of people at Noosa for the Dog Spectacular.
“SupDogOz kicked off the year with a great dog workshop tour. It was awesome to capture the key dog training tips to share in our upcoming training videos. We even taught ‘Bondi Vet’, Dr Chris Brown how to surf with Gypsy the dog.”
As if hosting workshops across the country and presenting the Noosa Festival’s Surfing Dog Championship wasn’t enough, Chris has been teaching his old dogs new tricks, elevating above the waves with his canine companions on SUPs and kiteboards mounted with hydrofoils. The relatively new phenomenon of foil surfing is taking the world by storm, and Chris and his four-legged friends weren’t going to be left behind. With the right conditions and a little luck, Chris will be demonstrating this gravity-defying new talent to the ever-appreciative Noosa crowd in 2018.
To top off his jam-packed 2017, De Aboitiz and his dog team set a new world record:
“So stoked we did it,” Chris enthuses. “It took 25 dogs, a former world champion tandem surfer and an oversize standup paddleboard to break the rather peculiar world record. We trained and prepared to get the dogs onto a 17ft SUP to set the record for the most dogs surfing on a board, and the whole thing was recorded by the Queensland Weekender TV show!”
The Surfing Dog Championships have always had a strong focus on promoting pet health and care, and this year VetShopAustralia is excited to announce Simparica as its co-sponsor. Providing water-resistant flea and tick protection for all sizes of hydro hounds in a convenient and tasty chew, Simparica is the perfect partner for the aquatic antics of our canine counterparts.
With SupDogOz launching a video series of dog training solutions later this year and De Aboitiz once more hosting a ‘SUP with Your Pup’ workshop prior to the main event on Sunday 11 March next year, there is plenty of opportunity for everyone to get involved and excited for the 2018 VetShopAustralia.com.au Surfing Dog Championships.
Find out more about VetShopAutsralia and SupDogOz at www.surfingdogspectacular.com.au
For more information on the Noosa Festival of Surfing, please visit: www.noosafestivalofsurfing.com