Dogs take flight in Santa Rosa

Her gloved left hand high over her head, Lucia Corace of San Francisco rocks forward and back on the balls of her bare feet looking like an intense fencer dangling a ball in front of her pit bull.

At go, Primo sprints and flies for a flung ball: 18 feet, 9 inches — a new best at the Sonoma County Fair.

The crowd of about 140 people cheer as Primo paddles through the portable pool, retrieves the ball and scampers up the exit ramp soaking wet.

“I’m telling you, you see some of those dogs coming off the ramp and they have a smile,” said Randy Woods, operations manager for Splash Dogs, a Pittsburg-based operation that is hosting about three jumping competitions a day throughout the Sonoma County Fair.

Owner Tony Reed, expects about 100 dogs to compete before the finals on Aug. 3.

Prizes at this point are nothing more than cheers and a ribbon for the best jumpers. The humans are enjoying the spectacle.

Primo, a 6-year-old pit bull owned by Corace and partner Vito Burggraf, is schooled an hour a day five days a week and competes at such contests almost every weekend.

The dogs compete several times at day at the fair.