RR Branstrom | Daily Press Vamoose, an adopted mixed breed dog in the K9s in Flight number, uses Autumn Trainor as a springboard to jump after a Frisbee.
ESCANABA – Mixed-breed dogs chase Frisbees and jump into a long pool while music plays and their owners/trainers introduce the dogs and talk about how rewarding it is to adopt rescued animals. The crowd applauds and laughs whether or not the dogs catch the Frisbees, and also when volunteers get splashed near the dock diving area.
This is K9s in Flight, a homeless-to-high-flying show taking place this week at the Upper Peninsula State Fair. It offers two or three shows a day, included in the price of admission to the fair. Founded in the 1990s by John Misita II, K9s in Flight has become a national name. The show can be seen on ESPN, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic for Kids, and many other networks.
Misita, a self-proclaimed “CEO and dog poop collector,” spoke to the Tennessee press while preparing the other unit of K9s in Flight for another trade show. He said his journey down this path began over 30 years ago when a friend picked up a puppy that was in a crate on the way to the shelter and gave it to Misita.
“We started playing ball … and one day I bought him a Frisbee, and he was a natural,” Misita said, saying the pup, whom he named CJ, was his best friend. “We played Frisbee every day, and then we saw there was a local Frisbee dog tournament in South Florida. So we went there, and he and I competed for many years. … He made it to three world championships.”
Misita realized he could make a living by playing with his dogs, so he started organizing some shows. At the Frisbee Dog World Championships, he was discovered by Purina and spent a few years touring the country with their elite team. He soon left the company to pursue his own path, which also included a moral.
Although the performances showcase the athleticism of a selection of mixed-breed dogs, they also convey a message to audiences: most of these talented animals, now loved by their families, were once strays or rescues, highlighting the problem of pet overpopulation.
Between shows at the fair, the times of the day’s performances are posted on a board in the arena, right next to the entrance to the grandstand. Almost half an hour before a scheduled show, human buttocks land in the stands. Little by little, the seats fill up. Children crowd the edge of the ring and have to be reminded not to lean on the short PVC pipe barrier.
“Take a seat and get ready for a damn good flight!” an invisible voice calls out ten minutes before the show, and then lively music starts playing.
When press attended a midweek performance, Autumn Trainor, who was running the event, began by introducing the show’s first and newest dog – a year-and-a-half-old Border Collie and Cattle Dog mix named Toro – and the other trainer, Christina Curtis. Curtis and Toro quickly showed off their Frisbee skills while Trainor spoke.
“Our dogs are all our pets, our partners, but most of all they are our family,” she said. “They do the same naughty things your dogs do at home, they crawl on counters, they crawl in the trash. We have a little guy that you’ll see on the show today who has to stand in a long line because after wandering the streets he’s on a perpetual quest to find the best turkey leg he can find at a county fair. So we like to say that our dogs are well behaved, but they’re not always well behaved.”
After the laughter, she went on to explain that most of the dogs participating in K9s in Flight were “rescued from shelters, from the streets or from homes that just weren’t a good fit for them, and we hope this show will give you the message that you can adopt a pet and save a life.”
As fewer people buy animals from breeders and adopt from shelters in recent years, the number of animals euthanized in shelters has decreased. Still, thousands of animals are euthanized each year due to overcrowding, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
But without dwelling on that grim thought, the show featured jumps and tricks from several feisty pups. Trainor and Curtis encouraged excited spectators to cheer on the dogs as they dived, leapt and swayed.
There was Zipper, a small, long-haired, black-and-white, four-year-old poodle-Yorkie-Beagle mix. “He was a stray roaming the streets of Dayton, Ohio, before Christina took him in,” Trainor said.
Competing to see who could jump the farthest into the pool (as measured by two young volunteers from the audience) were Mystique, a seven-year-old border collie-cattle dog mix from Maryland, and Flying Butterscotch Cupcake, a three-year-old yellow Labrador.
Closing out the show was five-and-a-half-year-old Vamoose, a mix of Australian Shepherd, Australian Cattle Dog and Border Collie – “or whatever was at the party that night,” Trainor joked.
After the show, Trainor and Curtis brought two of the dogs to the front for people to pet and photograph. While they collected donations and handed out toys to children, the women chatted with fairgoers.
While Misita and the other branch of K9s in Flight are competing in the Wilson County Fair – Tennessee State Fair, Trainor said the UP State Fair was the second stop of the season for this particular team, which was first in West Virginia and will soon be heading to Ohio and then Pennsylvania.
