Did you hear?… The Crazy River Dog Contest to become an essential element of this year's Yampa River Festival

Catering to dogs that have clearly lost their minds, The Crazy River Dog Contest will become an essential element of this year’s Yampa River Festival, where kayakers will compete in slalom races and rodeos to earn points toward the national championship. The grassroots festival has been a consistent favorite among avid kayakers and Steamboat Springs locals for 22 years. Always a festival highlight, the Crazy River Dog Contest offers dog lovers and their canine companions a chance to compete — and have fun — in the water. The Crazy River Dog Contest usually draws between 20 and 30 contestants of human and canine pairs. Canine athletes will swim after a fetch toy thrown by his or her human partner. The toy must be thrown past a certain point in the river. Crazy river dogs will then paddle through whitewater to retrieve the toy. The dog to fetch the toy the fastest wins. This summer’s crazy river dogs will paddle after the Ruff Wear Lunker, a retrieving toy stuffed with a combination of cutting room fabric and recycled foam scraps from Ruff Wear’s K-9 Float Coat, a high performance floatation device for canine water safety. Designed as a retrieving and training tool, the Lunker is weighted for long throws and floats on the water, making it the ideal fetch toy for the Crazy River Dog Contest. Ruff Wear will provide all prizes for the contest including K-9 Float Coats, collapsible water and food bowls, first aid kits for canines, and Hover Crafts, Ruff Wear’s ballistic nylon flying discs. The Crazy River Dog contest will be held in Steamboat Springs on June 8, beginning at noon, above the “D” hole. The contest usually runs for about two hours.