SHOWING ITS TEETH — As many as 85 dogs took part in the dock diving competition Sunday at the four-day Labor Day Weekend Friendship Cluster AKC All Breed Dog Show, organizers say. (Photo by Linda Harris)

SMITHFIELD — Clearly, Oscar didn’t want to get out of the water.

The 2-year-old English black lab had jumped off the dock at the Labor Day Weekend Friendship Cluster AKC All Breed Dog Show with enthusiasm, anxious to get his paws on the toy his owner had tossed into the water. And once he had it, Oscar wanted to keep it, paddling around the pool with the toy clenched between his teeth as he studiously avoided getting close enough to the side for his owner to reel him in.

“The hardest part is getting him out of the water,” Wheeling’s Russell Hardman said with a laugh. “He’s a puppy and he’s very excited. … He wants to know what all the dogs are doing in his pool.”

The show, held at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Friendship Park, attracted entries from across the U.S. and Canada, competing for championship points and wins toward rally and obedience titles.

While Oscar and dozens of other dogs competed in the dive pool, group judging was in progress in the show ring not far away.

Duke, a soon-to-be 9-year-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever, has been diving since 2015.

“You have to teach them to do it,” owner Carol Lipinski of Irwin, Pa., said. “(They) love it but it takes time for them to figure out how to get distance.”

Duke, she said, “gets air.”

“He’s a grand champion,” she said. “He does obedience, he does rally. But this is what he loves.”

Steve Powell, one of the diving officials, said experience wasn’t necessary for Sunday’s competition. Dogs and owners could try it for a nominal fee.

“We’ve had dogs only do three feet,” he said, pointing out the world record is actually 35.6 feet.

Jinx — her full name is Don’t Jinx Me Finn — soaked unwary spectators standing too close to the end of the 42-foot long dive pool.

“She goes big or she goes home,” owner Tammy Knisley, an Aliquippa, Pa., resident said.

Jinx, a registered Belgian Malinois, has competed just five times.

“She actually started off the dock at 17 feet,” said Knisley, adding Jinx earned her advanced elite title Sunday.

“She’s like one of those kids you put in a gym who can pretty much do anything,” Knisley said. “She’s athletic, she’s very confident. I don’t even know if she can swim, she just wants the toy!”

Over in the show ring, owners watched anxiously as handlers put their dogs through their paces for the judge.

Macaela Brier of Georgia, Vermont, leaned over the fence to smooth her 6-year-old Afghan hound’s coat.

“His name’s Cowboy,” she said. “He came with the name. I didn’t name him, but it’s kind of fitting.”

Brier said Cowboy is in the Top 10 nationally in his breed.

“I’m trying to get him into the top five,” she said. Breaking into the top five scores owners an invite to the famed Westminster Dog Show in New York.

“The cutoff is Oct. 1 for getting in as one of the top five,” another woman said.

The four-day show, which wraps up today, was organized by the St. Clairsville Kennel Club, Fort Steuben Kennel Association and Beaver County Kennel Club.