OUR TEAM MEMBERS

Lynda Barber-Wiltse

Lynda owns, trains, and breeds Chesapeake Bay Retrievers (since 1985) and has earned over 430 titles (to date) on the 16 dogs that stayed with her. Lynda and her Nuka Bay Chesapeakes compete in agility, obedience/rally, conformation, field, tracking and most recently dock diving (NADD – North American Diving Dogs) plus a few other areas. She also competes in national agility, obedience, and dock diving competitions. Lynda is a Charter Member of Alyeska Canine Trainers (Anchorage) where she teaches obedience and agility classes.

Inde got to “try” dock diving at some of the AKC Agility Invitationals – but never had any competitions to enter while Kach and his daughter Koy were her first dogs to officially compete in NADD Dock Diving (it was an event at our August 2017 American Chesapeake Club National Show Specialty in Raleigh, NC). Lynda, Kach and Koy worked with Cathy Hviid and Krissy Rupe in Alaska for a few training sessions then saw their first official NADD dock the day before the ACC event!  They both went on to compete in Florida at the NADD Championships (Kach in 2017 and Koy in 2017 and 2018). Kach, Koy and Lynda met Chesapeake friends in Ohio (July 2018) for a dock diving weekend. Koy made a few special solo dock diving weekend trips – joined Cara Dixon and Violet to form Team Northern Lights (at Brown Dog University, Gig Harbor, WA in May 2018) then met up with Chesapeake friends (and Cara and Violet) in Enumclaw, WA in August 2018. Kach earned his Dock Novice and Junior titles (DN, DJ) while Koy stretched out and earned her Dock Senior, Master, Master Advanced (DS, DM, DMA) and Air Retrieve Senior (AS) titles.

Lynda and the Nuka Bay Chesapeake Gang are looking forward to having a local Alaskan NADD facility!  Kach’s youngest daughters/Koy’s little sisters Deshka and Nelchina along with their Aunt Kluane want to learn the game too! Thank you ADBT Alaskan Diving Dogs for bringing a facility to Alaska!

Cathy Hviid

Cathy was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She started Dock Diving in 2004 with her lab Zoey, then Echo in 2007, and Nyx in 2013.  Her current partner in crime, Nyx is a six-year-old black lab from Junction City OR.  Cathy has experience working with dogs that are not natural Dock Divers. She was founding President of Puget Sound Dock Dogs. She loves learning ways to enhance her dogs' natural abilities. 

In 2004, Cathy and Zoey moved to Redmond WA. At an off leash park, Cathy saw a sign that changed her life. The DockDogs Northwest Regional Championship were that weekend at the park. Cathy had watched DockDogs on tv and knew Zoey would love it. And she did!

Echo enjoyed swimming and jumping, but she had other talents. She and Echo were Pet Partners for six years, and she was a Pet Partners Evaluator for two. Echo has since retired. Cathy taught Advanced Puppy classes and assisted with Kindergarten Puppy. Echo still enjoys swimming and cheerleading. 

Nyx was born to swim. Dock diving is in her genes. Cathy enjoys working with Nyx to keep her in shape and and happy. The two are happiest when loaded up and heading to an event with their friends. 

Dogs are integral part of the Hviid household, and they can’t imagine a home without a Lab, or two, or three. 

She has trained and competed with Nyx in BC, Alberta, Washington, Tennessee, Montana & Iowa. Nyx’s personal best in Distance is 25’3” and Air Retrieve is 21’. Nyx has a Dock Master Title and an Air Retrieve Master Title.  

Nyx's current DockDogs titles: Iron Dog Gladiator, Big Air Elite, Extreme Vertical Top Gun & Speed Retrieve Turbo. Her DD personal bests are: ID 2975.55, BA 23'11", EV 6'8", & SR 6.961 seconds. Cathy & Nyx participated in the 2015, 2016 & 2017 DD World Championship. In 2018 they received invites from both DockDogs and NADD.

Cara Dixon

Cara is a life-long Alaskan that has treasured a life-long love of dogs. She currently shares her life with 3 Doberman Pinschers, a Beauceron and a Cairn Terrier/Shitzu mix.

While her love of dogs has been a lifelong pleasure, her entry into the world of training, showing and working dogs started seven years ago with the introduction to her beloved male doberman, Nico. She was encouraged by her doberman breeder to pursue agility. Well, her puppy was still 5 weeks from coming home, so her Beauceron got signed up for agility classes!

7 years later and multiple titles in conformation, agility, rally, lure coursing, trick dog, barn hunt, and, of course, dock diving and air retrieve, Cara has found her passion of working with dogs.

Cara introduced her female Doberman, Violet, to Dock Diving at a North American Diving Dogs event in Enumclaw, WA in August of 2017. Violet had always loved to swim and never entered a pool, pond or lake without taking flight!! So, Dock Diving seemed like a natural fit for her. While watching and waiting for her turn, she got more and more excited! Her first ever jump off the dock produced an 11’9” jump off of a mobile dock and finished the weekend out with an 18’ jump!! AND SHE WAS HOOKED!! Perfect foot positioning with a solid waiting start right off the bat encouraged Cara to head out of state in early 2018 to see if Violet could compete against the top Dock Diving dobermans in the country. She jumped in four events in 2018 in Valley Center, CA; Sacramento, CA; Gig Harbor, WA and Enumclaw, WA. Every event found Violet extending her personal best jump and an introduction to Air Retrieve provided her with another outlet for her athleticism. Violet finished out 2018 nationally ranked at #12 in Dobermans with a season average of 19’5” and a personal best of 20’7”!!!
Air Retrieve was introduced in Gig Harbor while traveling with Lynda Barber-Wiltse and one of her Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, Koy. Both girls caught on quickly and were dubbed Team Northern Lights!!
Violet earned invitations to the AKC Agility Invitationals for both Dock Diving and Air Retrieve. Violet has most recently earned her Dock Senior Excellent title by jumping 55 times in the Senior jump division (15’-19’11”).

Violet has also already earned invitations to the 2019 AKC Agility Invitationals in both Dock Diving and Air Retrieve.

Cara and her whole crew are so incredibly excited to have a NADD-sanctioned facility so close to home. And, to be able to support such a great family and share our love of this sport with our friends and fellow dog lovers is quite a thrill.

Destiny Lytle

Destiny is a young talented dog trainer from Palmer, Alaska. She is active in her community by putting on demonstrations for children and adults at local schools and senior housing facilities, along with an annual scheduled demonstration at the Alaska State Fair. Her parents will tell you that she has been training working dogs since she was born. She started training people how to handle their dogs when she was 11-years old. She has put over 200 titles on various dogs of different breeds and ages. Destiny has a knack for empowering and instilling self-confidence in her clients and has introduced many people (primarily women) to the dog sport and protection dog world.

You can often find Destiny and her pack playing in the water, whether it’s a creek, river, lake, ocean, or pool. Since Destiny was young, she loved to play fetch in the water with her pups. She found it was a great source of conditioning and exercise for dogs of all ages and breeds. 

In 2015 she accompanied Lynda and the Chessie crew to Orlando where Ven and Irene got do to a NADD “try it”. They were instantly in love. When Ven and Destiny went back to Orlando in 2017, Ven got to do his first competition. He nailed it. Earning his Dock Senior title that trip. Later in 2018 Destiny and her crew took a trip down to the states where she got to do a couple more diving events. Earning a title on each of her 4 dogs she was competing with at the time. 

Although Destiny may not be as competitive as some in the sport, she hopes to grow her knowledge of dock diving and expand her love of teaching our four-legged friends how to enjoy the water and be confident swimmers. And she isn’t afraid to get in the pool and show them the ropes! She hopes to see you and your pup on the dock soon!

Rusty Boone

Rusty was born and raised in St. Louis, MO.  He got his start in dog sports in 2014 while he was living in Atlanta, GA with his Siberian Husky, Nanuk.  In 2015, he moved back to St. Louis where he began to compete competitively.  In 2016, Rusty and Nanuk placed 4th place in the 24 inch class at the AKC Invitationals. They have also competed at the 2017 and 2018 invitationals placing in the top 20.  Nanuk is currently ranked number 1 in his breed in Agility.  They have also competed at the 2017, 2018, & 2019 National Agility championships placing in the top 25 each year.

In 2017, Rusty decided to add a Belgian Malinois named Envy to his pack.  Envy has been introduced to many sports such as agility, disc, protection, dock diving, herding, and barn hunt.

In June 2018, Envy got started in dock diving.  We trained at Purina Farms in Gray Summit, MO with Sara Brueske who is on the incredible dog team.  She helped us understand the game and critiqued my handling so that Envy would learn what i was asking her to do.

In August 2018, Envy was ready to compete.  Each competition, her confidence level improved along with mine.  She was able to continue to jump further and further each time. By October, Envy earned her Dock Master title and Air Retrieve Master titles.  She also won her class at the qualifier in St Louis at ArchBark qualifying for the National Championship.

December 2018, Due to a conflict with agility, my friend Danielle Etzel handled Envy for me.  Envy took 15th place in Air Retrieve Master class hitting 20 Ft.  She took 12th place in distance hitting 22'6.

Rusty moved to Alaska in March 2019.  He is excited to start helping other teams get introduced to the sport and seeing them excel as Team Envy has