Diving Dogs

A pair of blood donors to the Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center’s Companion Animal Blood Bank have more in common than saving lives one unit at a time.

In their free time, Newt and Koda are dog dock divers and recently competed in the North America Diving Dogs (NADD), a national dock diving competition for canines. The competition is for the top placing dogs in the U.S. and Canada dock diving.

Dogs are invited at all ages and sizes and to qualify for nationals they must compete throughout the year and have at least 15 jumps. Dogs then must either place at a regional event or be within a certain percentage of the top dogs of their jumping division to compete at the national event.

At nationals, both dogs competed in the distance competition which is based on how far a dog can jump.

This was Newt’s first year competing. He is owned by Bailey Middleton, a third-year DVM student at Iowa State.

“Newt and Koda met up after being introduced because they were both blood donors,” Middleton said. “We were super excited to have been invited after placing at regionals.”

Koda is no newcomer to the sport. His owner, Alisha Storm, says the blood donor has competed in other dog sports but that dock diving is Koda’s favorite.

“It was so fun to see Bailey and Newt compete while we were there,” Storm said.

Newt and Koda volunteer to donate blood products that are need for Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center canine patients.

November 2026