The Shake Up

Grab a snack – cheese fries, mini donuts, ice cream – and plan to arrive to JUMP! The Ultimate Dog Show at least 15 minutes early. The popularity of this show is a testament to people’s affection for dogs. Even if you are not a dog lover, you’ll want to see this show. The athleticism of the dogs and the apparent amount of training they have is awesome.

The dogs – Rock, Popeye, Sid, Nubs, Freddy and Chewy – are all around 3 to 4 years old, and they’ve all been adopted or rescued by Lou “Mack” McCammon.  In fact, all of the 13 dogs he uses in his shows have been adopted or rescued.  “We like to emphasize pet adoption and rescue in the shows,” Mack said, “and training happy and healthy dogs.”  He advocates for pet adoption because of the vast number of dogs born each year that end up in humane societies or euthanized.  It’s obvious, as well, that the dogs are happy and healthy.  They all eagerly jump into Mack’s arms and joyously chase Frisbee after Frisbee. 

Mack is a fit, tan, frosted hair kind of guy, and it comes as no surprise that he’s headquartered in Las Vegas.  Mack and a team of his dogs travel to state fairs, theme parks and sports events across the nation all year, typically taking only one month off.  Getting his start at age 26, Mack has been wowing people with his Frisbee dogs for 27 years.  After seeing a Frisbee dog contest, he decided he wanted to get into that and picked up Scooter, who became one of the best Frisbee dogs of all time. 

Mack’s talented pack of dogs will spin, backflip, leap, splash, walk on two front legs and charm the audience.  Of all their tricks, you’ll be most surprised to see that the dock-diving Nubs has a nub for one of his back legs.  From a car accident that didn’t heal right, Nubs’ nub doesn’t appear to bother him.  He runs, jumps and swims just as well as the other dogs.  Mack saw that special focus in Nubs and, with a little more compassion than he might let on, made him a great addition to the show.

The dogs are fun to watch and may even inspire you to rescue a dog or teach yours to do some tricks.  Hurry up, get your corn dog and grab a seat before it gets too crowded, or you might get stuck standing in the splash zone.