All-American Dog, “Trinity,” might be 11 years old, but that isn’t stopping her from continuing to rack up personal bests and make waves in the dock diving circuit. Ahead of the 2025 AKC Diving Dogs Challenge, her owner-handler, Erin Rakosky, from Asheboro, North Carolina, explains how her love of the crowds and can-do attitude means Trinity isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
A Houseful of Hounds
Rakosky, who works as a veterinarian, is a lifelong animal lover. “My mom told me that my dream jobs as a kid were always either a veterinarian, a zookeeper, or an Olympic horseback rider,” she says. “So, I guess the veterinarian was the more attainable goal.”
Although Rakosky’s family had always had dogs when she was younger, she spent much of her time around horses. However, her horse passed away soon after she started vet school, and she decided not to take on another one due to the significant time commitment.
After rescuing an All-American Dog, Rakosky started participating in flyball with him, which was her first introduction to the world of dog sports.
Over the years, Rakosky’s four-legged family has expanded. Currently, along with her husband, she shares her home with 11 dogs — a mix of Border Collies, Shetland Sheepdogs, Whippets, and athletic All-American Dogs — and they compete in a wide range of dog sports, including agility, herding, flyball, and Disc Dog.
An Immediate Connection With Her ‘Heart Dog’
11 years ago, when Rakosky was visiting Trinity’s breeder, she wasn’t planning on purchasing a puppy. However, Rakosky had a change of heart when she felt an instant connection with Trinity. The pair continues to have a strong bond, with Rakosky describing Trinity as one of her “heart dogs” who is game for anything.
Trinity’s natural athleticism likely contributes to the fact that she is still performing at a high level into her senior years. However, it took some trial and error to find the sports she enjoys and excels in the most. “I tried to do a little agility, but she just liked to run fast and didn’t really want to listen to turning and taking the obstacles I wanted her to, so we didn’t go very far,” Rakosky says.
Flyball allowed Trinity to put her love of speed to the test, and she certainly lived up to the challenge. Her biggest accomplishment, and Rakosky’s proudest moment, was when they travelled to France in 2018 to compete as part of Team USA at the Flyball Open World Cup. “We went over and won, and set the world record time at that point,” she says.
Intro to Dock Diving During COVID
Rakosky’s involvement in dock diving took off during the COVID-19 pandemic. “All the indoor dog sports got cancelled, but dock diving was outside. It was nice to be able to still compete with the dogs, but be safe about it,” she says. Rakosky says it’s the perfect summer sport, being outside and then having the opportunity to cool off in the pool. Plus, her dogs really enjoy it.
Diving is also a great low-impact option for Trinity, who picked up a shoulder injury just before the national shutdowns began. “After we went through physical therapy and rehab, I decided I didn’t want to bring her back to flyball, but she’s still a very active dog,” Rakosky says.
Fortunately, Trinity loves dock diving and continues to surprise Rakosky with how much she is capable of. While she started competing in the quintessential Distance Jump event, she now also competes in the Air Retrieve and Hydro Dash categories.
Juggling a Busy Job and Lots of Dogs
Rakosky’s commitment to her career and dogs is inspiring. In addition to being a full-time general practice veterinarian who works long shifts, she also provides top-notch care to all her dogs and manages their busy competition schedule. While some are enjoying their retirements, Rakosky still juggles training different dogs across a wide range of sports on her days off.
While owning 11 dogs has its challenges, Rakosky wouldn’t have it any other way. “They all get along very well and all bring a different personality and athletic ability to the table,” she says. Rakosky also believes that working with so many different characters makes her a better trainer, as she has to adapt her techniques to meet the individual needs of each dog.
During her dock diving journey, one of the biggest challenges for Rakosky was learning how to throw the bumper, a specially designed floating retrieval toy, just right for each dog. “Trinity likes a late throw that’s a little bit high,” she says. “So, it’s hard to get the timing with my other dogs because she likes her throw so different from everybody else.”
Still Achieving Personal Bests at 11 Years Old
When Rakosky gets that throw just right, there’s no stopping Trinity. At her first Regional competition last year, she exceeded Rakosky’s expectations, and they ended up qualifying for Nationals in all three events. “At Nationals, she jumped out of her division and then ended up still placing in the higher-up division,” she says. “She loves a crowd, and the excitement always seems to make her do better — she feeds off of it.”
Trinity’s farthest Distance Jump is an impressive 25 feet 7 inches. Despite being in the Veteran category now, when they went to the AKC Salutes the Troops event on Memorial Day, Trinity surprised Rakosky by jumping over 25 feet there, too. “She loved the ESPN crew and all the people watching,” she adds.
At that event, Rakosky told one of the other competitors that she was planning to retire Trinity from Air Retrieve, as she worried about it being hard on her body. In this event, dogs showcase their vertical jumping skills by catching a bumper suspended over the water.
“My plan was to keep doing the other two events as long as she was happy and comfortable and still wanting to jump,” Rakosky explains. “Then, again, she proved me wrong, and she jumped a new personal best in Air Retrieve.” Her previous PB was 13 feet, and she smashed it out of the park, jumping 16 feet.
“She’s one of those dogs that you start to think about changing or slowing down, and she kind of says, ‘Hold my beer,’ and does something completely over the top,” Rakosky says. She hopes they can continue to rack up more splashes together for some time to come. “I know that there will come a day when we have to retire, but for now, we are enjoying every competition and everything that we do together.”
The AKC Diving Dogs Challenge participants are making a splash! Catch all of the action on July 4th at 7pm ET on ESPN!