While much of the world focuses its attention on the athletic prowess of Olympians competing in China, a group of furrier, four-legged athletes are doing final preparations for their own version of the hallowed games.

Starting Wednesday, northern Nevada's own High Desert Dive Dogs – also known as H3D – will play host to five days of competitive running, jumping and splashing at the Nevada State Fair in Reno’s Livestock Events Center. Dogs and their handlers from all over the western United States will come to see which canine can leap the farthest in an old-fashioned game of fetch. This week's competition is the second of two such summer events held in northern Nevada, both sponsored by Tamarack Junction.

The contest is simple: Handlers throw a toy into the water and the dog runs to the end of a specially made, 40-foot dock and leaps for the toy. The dog who jumps the farthest wins. Thanks to sponsorship money from Tamarack Junction, the national organization Splash Dogs will bring in sophisticated computer equipment to measure each dog’s jump. Dogs from the local club can be found nearly every Saturday and Sunday morning practicing at the Sparks Marina.

Though some dogs will take home ribbons and others will just get wet, H3D president Bob Harmon says all participants – human and canine – are winners in this sport.

"Dogs come from a working background, so this becomes a job for them," Harmon said. "It helps dog owner and dog cement a bond. It's something they can do together."

Harmon's 11-year-old daughter, Annie, knows about this connection first-hand. The sixth-grader has formed a bond with the Harmons' dog Pepperspot, an Australian cattle dog, after beating her own dad in the dog's first splashdown competition three years ago in Auburn, Calif. That year, Bob got Pepperspot to jump 15 feet 1 inch while Annie got the dog to leap 15 feet 9 inches. Since then, she has been the handler while her dad coaches from the sidelines. Last year, Annie was named the junior handler of the year for her work with Pepperspot, though Annie is good enough to compete against adults in the senior category as well.

"Before all this started my dad did all the stuff with Pepper," Annie said. "He fed and walked and played with them. Yeah, but once we started doing this sport I got more connected to Pepper than Dad did. We're pretty much buddies. My dad still walks them and feeds them but sometimes I help."

Suzy Nicholson from Washoe Valley will be competing this week with Tinka, a 45-pound “unknown breed” that Nicholson rescued from a shelter. A self-described dog person, Nicholson said Tinka is as important to her as an arm or a leg. When she first went to rescue Tinka from High Sierra Animal Rescue in Portola, Calif., Nicholson said she was turned down for the adoption because she worked too much.

After much pleading, Nicholson was able to take Tinka home and now the the shelter uses Tinka as a success story.

In last year’s event at the Nevada fair, Tinka jumped a personal best of 23 feet — good enough to take second place.

Nicholson said Tinka has been jumping about 22 feet on average this summer and has consistently been among the top jumpers in competitions all over the west. Three weeks ago, Tinka came in sixth out of more than 100 dogs in a Santa Rosa, Calif. competition, but there Tinka was up against bigger dogs that jump as far as 26 feet.

“She (Tinka) is a chunky little dog, but she jumps her heart out,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson has three dogs but said that the other two are just casual water lovers.

“Tinka is all serious,” Nicholson said. “If we have a ball and we have water, we have a job to do. She’s addicted to it and I guess you could say I am, too.”

For more information on this week’s competition, go to www.h3dnevada.com.