MEET THE 2025 BOARD
Graysen Ratner
President
Meet Graysen and the family
"Team The Cow Boy Prince"
"Team Gray Girls"
In 2023, I signed up on-site at the World of Pets Expo with my then 6-year-old, Cow Boy Staffordshire Terrier, who surprised the entire room when he actually jumped in at 7’7”, having never stepped foot on a dock before. We both instantly fell in
love and began our journey.
Our first season was unfortunately cut short due to finding a mass cell tumor in Prince’s leg, but that didn’t stop us from coming back swinging. We continued on to earn every single title for all disciplines and increased our Big Air title from Senior to Master. He’s taken home so many finalist ribbons, I’m running out of room! Prince was awarded 2023 Rookie of the Year. In 2024, his first Veteran season, he achieved new personal bests in each discipline.
Prince is the ONLY American Staffordshire Terrier in the 2023 and 2024 rankings,
finishing with 20.1ft and 20.2ft averages.
This past season, I debuted a new dog, my baby girl, silver lab, Asha. She took the competitions by storm as her confidence grew. Starting at 11’3” her first competition, after refusing her practice jump for 45 seconds, and then taking 1st place in Junior finals with 19'6". She ended her first season competing in all 3 disciplines, earning a Master title, and earning herself 1st place Titan in Iron Dog. It was an incredible honor for her to earn the 2024 Rookie of the Year, following her brother’s footsteps. She is JUST getting started. You’ll see us at Worlds one day!
We can’t wait for what the 2025 season holds for us and we hope you join the fun.
Personal Bests
Prince Asha
BA: 21’4” BA: 23’0”
SR: 8.205 SR: 6.980
EV: 5’0” EV: 5’6”
ID: 2634.58 ID: 2863.83
Britney Muth
Vice President
Vice President
Meet Britney and the family
Britney found DockDogs in June of 2023 after inquiring about a sport for her Dalmatian, Jali, who loved the water. Jali took right to jumping off the dock at their first-ever practice. They competed in their first event of August 2023 and have been hooked ever since. Britney's daughter, Rachael, also competes with Jali, so she has acquired another potential DockDogs competitor - Roo, a Belgian Malinois who will hopefully make her debut in the 2026 season. While still somewhat new to the sport, they look forward to all of their accomplishments and Britney enjoys the bond DockDogs creates with the dogs you compete with.
Jali's stats
Big Air - Club Master Titled
Personal Best 21'05"
Extreme Vertical - Cadet Titled
Personal Best 5'10"
Speed Retrieve - Club Express Titled
Personal Best 9.690 seconds
Iron Dog - Club Warrior Titled
Personal Best 2606.31 points
The ONLY ranked Dalmatian in DockDogs Extreme Vertical
and Club Big Air during the 2024 season!
Chelsie Bain
Treasurer
Treasurer
Meet Chelsie and the family
"Team Firecracker"
MDW 2020, Chelsie, Greg and Mila were spending the weekend at Lake Gaston. There was a toy in the lake and one-year-old Mila, with no experience jumping off a dock, launched in for the toy with zero hesitation. They talked to some friends after that weekend, who were already CDD members, and their arms were twisted to register for Puppypalooza in August. They rolled up to Maggie Malicks with their Pandemic masks on and zero expectations and their little firecracker took home a 1st place with a 14'10" jump. And that's when they knew they had themselves a dog who loved the sport of dock diving.
The next two seasons, they only competed at Maggie's, and by 2023, their CDD friends had finally convinced them to jump on the crazy train and travel near and far for even more fun. Greg had no idea that this meant driving to Iowa in 2023 for the DockDogs World Championships :) Over the years, they have loved getting to know the CDD family and larger DockDogs community.
When they're not on the dock, Mila keeps Chelsie busy with Barn Hunt, Mantrailing and Area Search, Fast CAT, Protection Work, and their newest sport adventure, UpDog. Outside of dog sports, Chelsie enjoys boating, wakeboarding, snowboarding, live music and traveling with Greg.
Stats:
Big Air: 20'4" (PB 23'9")
Speed Retrieve: 6.066 sec
EV: 5'6"
Iron Dog: 2842.75
2023 DockDogs World Championship competitor (BA, SR, EV and ID)
2024 DockDogs World Championship qualifier (SR and Dueling)
2024 CDD Speed Retrieve Nitro - 2nd place
2024 DockDogs Club Speed Retrieve - ranked 35th Worldwide, 5th ranked Belgian Malinois
ANGELINA BRANNIGAN
Secretary
"Team Blazin' Belgians"
Secretary
"Team Blazin' Belgians"
Meet Angelina Auntie of Zara, Kane, Syri and Nuri
Angelina fell in love with the DockDiving back in 2019 when she tagged along with her good friend Beth & Nuri to watch them compete. Along the way she met great people, gained awesome friends, fell in love with the community & the feeling of being around family (the members), that she decided to take her friend suggestion & try the sport. Needless to say, she is now an Auntie to not one, but many of the CDD's members dogs. She has progressed in the sport in less than a year and is now very honored to be a handler of Michelle Dudley's dogs. Zara & Kane & is absolutely loving it! Angelina is the only board member who does not have a dog! After losing her two dogs of over 17 years,
she accidentally turned in to a crazy cat lady!
However, she has never opted out on being a dog mom again, so look out!
Stats
Zara
Big Air Master 21.03
Kane
Big Air Junior 15.07
Nuri
Big Air Novice 8.01
Meet Michelle and the family
Sean Hammond
Board Director
Meet Sean and the family
Zuma started his dock diving adventure at the World of Pets expo in 2020 where he became a member of Chesapeake DockDogs. We have enjoyed every second of dock diving and Zuma has certainly enjoyed his time learning this sport.
Zuma won the Chesapeake DockDogs yearly award for Most Improved Dog in 2023 and again in 2024. Zuma has traveled to many states for Dock Diving and has been invited to the
World Championships in 2023 where he won third place in the
Extreme Vertical in the Cadet division.
The following year Zuma was invited back to the World Championships where he was honored with a Golden Paw award for the Top Ranked Turbo Team and earned invites in Iron Dog – Gladiator finishing in 2nd place, Extreme Vertical - High Flyer, Speed Retrieve Teir 3 finishing 3rd place, Big Air Senior finishing 7th place, and Dueling Dogs Teir 1 finishing 12th place. His personal best scores give him an Iron Dog Gladiator score of 2987, An Extreme vertical height of 7ft, a Big Air distance of 23ft 6in,
A dueling Dog speed retrieve time of 5.9seconds.
Among Zuma’s athletic accomplishments he has also earned a Doctorate Degree from The University of Maryland – College Park in Canine Linguistics. He anticipates earning a Professional Doctorate degree in 2025. Zuma also provides service support for the residence in the Veterans Administration Nursing Home in Washington D.C. and is the 2025 keynote speaker for the Gold Star Families (Potomac Region) convention in Ocean City, Maryland.
His favorite snacks are tomatoes, asparagus, and cheese. Zuma usually rides along with his dad and has been going to his ice hockey games since he was a puppy and has sat on the bench for many games with the team. When home alone, he has been known to open the refrigerator, take out the butter, turn the TV from the classical music channel to monster trucks at full volume until his dad gets home.
Zuma started his dock diving adventure at the World of Pets expo in 2020 where he became a member of Chesapeake DockDogs. We have enjoyed every second of dock diving and Zuma has certainly enjoyed his time learning this sport.
Zuma won the Chesapeake DockDogs yearly award for Most Improved Dog in 2023 and again in 2024. Zuma has traveled to many states for Dock Diving and has been invited to the
World Championships in 2023 where he won third place in the
Extreme Vertical in the Cadet division.
The following year Zuma was invited back to the World Championships where he was honored with a Golden Paw award for the Top Ranked Turbo Team and earned invites in Iron Dog – Gladiator finishing in 2nd place, Extreme Vertical - High Flyer, Speed Retrieve Teir 3 finishing 3rd place, Big Air Senior finishing 7th place, and Dueling Dogs Teir 1 finishing 12th place. His personal best scores give him an Iron Dog Gladiator score of 2987, An Extreme vertical height of 7ft, a Big Air distance of 23ft 6in,
A dueling Dog speed retrieve time of 5.9seconds.
Among Zuma’s athletic accomplishments he has also earned a Doctorate Degree from The University of Maryland – College Park in Canine Linguistics. He anticipates earning a Professional Doctorate degree in 2025. Zuma also provides service support for the residence in the Veterans Administration Nursing Home in Washington D.C. and is the 2025 keynote speaker for the Gold Star Families (Potomac Region) convention in Ocean City, Maryland.
His favorite snacks are tomatoes, asparagus, and cheese. Zuma usually rides along with his dad and has been going to his ice hockey games since he was a puppy and has sat on the bench for many games with the team. When home alone, he has been known to open the refrigerator, take out the butter, turn the TV from the classical music channel to monster trucks at full volume until his dad gets home.
Kathryn Litherland
Board Director
“Team Redneck Splorsh Park”
Board Director
“Team Redneck Splorsh Park”
Meet Kathryn and the family
There once was a semiaquatic Shenandoah Lumber Spaniel named Harper (GSD/lab) who was very talented at catching frisbees and balls and was OBSESSED with water. In April 2022, her mom stumbled across a practice session for this thing called “Dock Diving” and thought Harper might enjoy it.
And boy did she ever, competing in her first CDD club even a month later!
Later that summer Kathryn decided to get her dog a dog, and she found herself drawn to a bright-eyed shepherd mix coming back from a rough start in life down in Kentucky. Kathryn tried again and again to get him to jump off the dock and very nearly gave up on dock diving with him. It took 9 months and several practice sessions to get “Number Two Emergency Backup Dog” Spork (GSD/pitbull/boxer) to make his first leap off the Big Boy Dock. Once he realized it was safe and actually kind of fun, he became a big fan and a fierce competitor. Spork only jumped in two waves of Big Air in his 2023 rookie season but came out guns-a-blazing for 2024, soon surpassing Harper's personal bests in everything but Speed Retrieve. (In Harper's defense, she has hip dysplasia, and we now believe she was competing on an undiagnosed torn cruciate ligament throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons...)
Stats
Harper
Big Air 22’6”
Extreme Vertical 6’6”
Speed Retrieve 6.724
Iron Dog 2931.13
Dueling Dogs 7.308
Worlds invites: 2023--EV Top Gun, ID Titan; 2024--EV Cadet, SR Turbo, ID Titan, Dueling Dogs Class 3
Spork
BA 24’10”
EV 7’2”
SR 5.913
ID 3005.11
Dueling Dogs 6.124
Worlds invites: 2024--BA Master, EV Top Gun, SR Turbo, ID Gladiator, Dueling Dogs Class 1; 2025--BA Master, EV Top Gun, SR Nitro, ID Spartan
And boy did she ever, competing in her first CDD club even a month later!
Later that summer Kathryn decided to get her dog a dog, and she found herself drawn to a bright-eyed shepherd mix coming back from a rough start in life down in Kentucky. Kathryn tried again and again to get him to jump off the dock and very nearly gave up on dock diving with him. It took 9 months and several practice sessions to get “Number Two Emergency Backup Dog” Spork (GSD/pitbull/boxer) to make his first leap off the Big Boy Dock. Once he realized it was safe and actually kind of fun, he became a big fan and a fierce competitor. Spork only jumped in two waves of Big Air in his 2023 rookie season but came out guns-a-blazing for 2024, soon surpassing Harper's personal bests in everything but Speed Retrieve. (In Harper's defense, she has hip dysplasia, and we now believe she was competing on an undiagnosed torn cruciate ligament throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons...)
Stats
Harper
Big Air 22’6”
Extreme Vertical 6’6”
Speed Retrieve 6.724
Iron Dog 2931.13
Dueling Dogs 7.308
Worlds invites: 2023--EV Top Gun, ID Titan; 2024--EV Cadet, SR Turbo, ID Titan, Dueling Dogs Class 3
Spork
BA 24’10”
EV 7’2”
SR 5.913
ID 3005.11
Dueling Dogs 6.124
Worlds invites: 2024--BA Master, EV Top Gun, SR Turbo, ID Gladiator, Dueling Dogs Class 1; 2025--BA Master, EV Top Gun, SR Nitro, ID Spartan