Hotdogging> A skateboarding German Shepherd rips on all four (wheels that is)

loading...

He can’t do a crooked grind, his attempts at a feeble are just that, and he turns his nose up at frontside nosegrinds, but skateboarding has made Jake Spreng famous just the same. So how does a 21-year-old who is unable to execute even a basic kickflip become a celebrated skateboarder?

Well, for starters, he’s a self-taught boarder who took up the sport only two years ago. Throw in the fact he’s covered with hair and he’s actually only 3 years old (in human years), and you see the allure. Besides, no one has the courage to tell a 92-pound, purebred German shepherd he’s only average at best.

Rollin’ down the driveway

Meet Jake, man’s best friend and a canine who really knows how to let the good times roll.

It was with little buildup or fanfare that Jake the German shepherd’s skateboarding career began at 16 North St.

“I guess it was about 21/2 years ago,” owner Rick Spreng recalled. “My oldest son, Jeremy, who’ll be 12 in October, was fooling around with a skateboard in the yard with some friends.”

Meanwhile, Jake, who hates to be left out of any activity, decided he could handle a board just as well as Jeremy and his friends. The trick was getting his paws, or jaw, on one.

“It was kind of funny,” Jeremy said. “At first I thought he was trying to chew up the skateboard, but he just kept trying to get it back from me.”

Eventually, he did manage to wrest the board away and just suddenly started half-skating on it with both front paws on and the rear legs propelling him forward.

“I was like ‘Whoa … .”‘ Jeremy said. “My friends thought it was the funniest thing they’d seen.”

Both Rick and wife Heidi happened to be looking out the window as Jake took his maiden boarding voyage.

“He just watched Jeremy do it and went from there,” Rick said.

Jake’s progression was surprisingly rapid, although he seemed to be the only one who wasn’t surprised by his skating skill. Soon, the canine was able to get all four feet on the board and let momentum do all the work. He’d ride the skateboard from one end of the driveway to the other, but that only lasted about 18 months as he quickly grew too big for the board.

“Now he puts his front paws on there and kind of runs up and down the road on it,” said Rick Spreng. “I don’t know if it’s just a stimulating thing for him or what, but he loves to do it. He keeps doing it until he runs into something or crashes.”

Jake has added tricks to his trade as he has become more skilled with the skateboard.

“I think it’s a combination of him teaching himself and some things we’ve taught,” Rick Spreng explained. “He’ll get going and kind of toss it up in the air, catch it and go. The other thing is the prance with the skateboard in his mouth like a trophy.”

Jake’s favorite activity is the chase: Either he’ll push it down the driveway and chase it himself or – and this is his preferred variation – someone really zips it away with a foot so he can really tear out after it and catch it.

“The biggest thing that amazes me is once he gets down to the end of the driveway, he kind of does a 180, puts one paw on it, flips it around and goes the other way. It’s amazing.” Spreng marveled.

“People always tell us to tape him and send it to ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos,’ but it’s such a common occurrence for us, we don’t even think of it as a novelty or anything.”

The heir apparent

Jake not only has a lot of skateboarding years in him, he also has someone to pass along his tricks of the trade to.

The newest member of the Spreng family is Lance, another purebred shepherd who’s only 6 months old but eager to follow in his older role model’s paw prints.

“We got Lance from a family in Hudson,” Spreng said. “He’s at the one-paw level right now. He’ll put his right paw on it and then kind of push himself off.”

Lance is already 70 pounds of energetic hair and muscle, and Spreng expects he’ll get even bigger than Jake, perhaps leveling off when he gets to 100 or 110 pounds.

“He just started, but I think he’s going to be just like Jake,” said Jeremy Spreng – the catalyst for this whole skateboarding dog thing who, ironically, has lost interest in skateboarding and moved on to soccer.

Who needs chew toys?

The only bad thing about having two skateboarding German shepherds is the expense. If you thought keeping your children in sneakers that fit properly is an expensive proposition, consider Rick Spreng’s plight.

“Jake, when he first started it, would go through a board fairly often so I’d cut off a piece of plywood and put the old wheels on the new plywood board,” Spreng explained.

It seems that your average fiberglass, plastic or composite board takes a much harsher pounding from German shepherds than it does from humans. The weight is bad enough, but throw in viselike jaws and sharp, strong teeth that can decimate rawhide chew toys and bones in no time, and they take their toll.

“I’d say they’ve gone through four or five with Jake, and Lance has used up one already,” Spreng said with a sigh.

Needless to say, you don’t want to be caught between Jake and a brand-new skateboard.

“A new skateboard for him is like a kid with candy,” Spreng explained. “He jumps up and down and gets so excited. He practically mauls you until you give it to him.”

Spreng chuckled while recalling a particularly memorable trip to the toy store to buy Jake some new wheels awhile back.

“They had a sale out at Toys R Us one time and we bought two boards. A lady remarked how good it was that we were buying Jeremy two, but then Jeremy told her they were both for his dog and she thought he was joking.”

And if that woman ever drives down North Street, she’ll learn it was no joke as she, like so many other drivers who have pulled over and got out of their cars in the last few months, watches with fascination as Jake and Lance hang ten in their driveway.