Hank keeps his eyes on the prize — in this case a tennis ball — during a dock-diving jump. The purpose of the tennis ball is to encourage long jumps, and it really doesn’t matter if the canine catches the ball. Courtesy
DAVID STONE | OUR TOWN TEMPLE
Different dogs have different talents: Some are expert herders and work in cattle pastures; some sniff out drugs or bombs to keep America safe; others visit sick children or the elderly, bringing joy to hearts and faces. Then there’s Hank, a 2-year-old Rottweiler with a penchant for leaping great distances into a pool of water.
It’s called dock diving, and dogs such as Hank soar off a 40-foot dock before splashing down. The dog who travels the greatest distance before hitting water is the winner. Hank wins — a lot.
“He’s a beast,” said dock-diving trainer Adrianna Torres, who co-owns Alpha Leader K9 Training & Water Sports along with Edith Morris. “He’s the No. 2 dog in the nation for his breed, and he is closing in on No. 1. He’s a big, strong dog, and we’re working on making him stronger.”
“We are fitness instructors for dogs, and we are building up Hank’s hind legs,” Adrianna said. “We have him pulling tires and running uphill with a parachute — things that will help make the legs stronger so he can jump farther.”
Hank, who has been jumping competitively since October, is owned by Alta and Jeremy Erskine. Jeremy also serves as his handler.
“Hank and Jeremy are a team, and we work with both of them,” Adrianna said. “Jeremy uses a tennis ball to entice Hank to jump far, and he has to know exactly when to release it and how high to throw it.”
Adrianna and Edith began training dock-divers about three years ago when both were working for a trainer in Nolanville.
“We ran across a video and thought it looked like fun,” Adrianna said. “Edith had a swimming pool, so we started working with our personal dogs. When we opened Alpha Leader K9, we decided that would be something we would do.”
While dock diving and other canine sports offer good times for dogs and their owners, the Temple academy offers a wide variety of social, trick and therapy training.
“One of our popular courses is our puppy training, which is a class for puppies and their new owners,” she said. “The six-week course teaches basic commands, grooming, potty training and building a forever bond.”
“We set you up for the future with your dog. Dogs go through phases, and we teach owners how to handle each phase.”
One of several American Kennel Club courses taught at Alpha Leader K9 is good citizen training, which teaches manners and basic obedience. Hank’s older brother — Steel — is one of many Central Texas dogs to complete this course.
“It taught Steel how to be a good canine citizen,” Jeremy Erskine said. “Now we can take him out in public, and he will even sit down by me while I eat.”
Alpha Leader K9 also trains therapy and service dogs, and runs a group of canines that frequently visits retirement homes, high schools and elementary schools.
“They are there to make others feel good, and they do a super job,” Adrianna said. “We took dogs to Belton High School last year after a student was tragically killed. The dogs helped bring smiles back to students’ faces.”
“A lot of residents in nursing or retirement homes aren’t able to take pets with them, so we fill a gap in their hearts,” she said. “Their faces really light up when a dog walks into their room.”
Another member of the Erskine family — Larry, a 1-year-old Rottweiler — just received his therapy dog certification through Alpha Leader K9 and is ready to start putting smiles on faces.
“They have a pack of therapy dogs, and Larry is part of the team now,” said Jeremy, an exercise physiologist at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Temple. “They go out several times a week. Some service animals wear ‘Don’t Pet’ vests — Larry’s vest says ‘Please Pet.’”
Alpha Leader K9 also trains dogs to detect high or low blood sugar in diabetics and other medical issues.
“Right now, we are working with a woman in Anderson, Texas, who has POTS,” Adrianna said. Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a condition that causes a number of symptoms when you transition from lying down to standing up, such as a fast heart rate, dizziness and fatigue.
Other popular dog courses at Alpha Leader are the trick-training classes, which teach a dog basic and advanced tricks through five levels of training.
“We start with basic tricks such as rolling over and shaking hands,” Adrianna said. “The dog has to do five tricks in order to advance to the next level. The owner picks the tricks they want their dog to perform.”
“Some of the more advanced tricks included bowing, the Army crawl, getting inside a suitcase and pulling a wagon. We can teach a dog to retrieve a certain item from a pile, and we even teach dogs to ride a skateboard. That’s a big trick — you better watch your shins.”
Hank, a competitive dock diving dog, closes in on a tennis ball as he soars over a training pool at Alpha Leader K9 in Temple as owners Alta and Jeremy Erskine look on. Hank 2023 distance of 21 feet is the second best jump by a Rottweiler this year. Courtesy photo
Earl Lloyd, executive director of Churches Touching Lives for Christ food pantry on Avenue G, examines a bag of apples at the center. The pantry is currently short on canned goods, peanut butter and breakfast items. David Stone photo
Food donations needed
Peanut butter, canned food, breakfast bars top list of needs at CTLC food pantry
DAVID STONE | OUR TOWN TEMPLE
The temperature isn’t the only thing going up this summer. Food prices remain sky high, prompting more Central Texans to turn to food pantries for assistance in keeping dinner on the table. And because demand is up, so is the need for non-perishable donations.
“Right now, we are in need of canned corn and spinach, peanut butter and instant oatmeal,” said Earl Lloyd, executive director of Churches Touching Lives for Christ, a Temple food pantry on Avenue G. “We also need breakfast bars — any donations of food will be greatly appreciated.”
Non-perishable foods — boxed or canned items that don’t require refrigeration — can be dropped off at 702 W Avenue G. Monetary donations can be sent to CTLC, PO Box 5, Temple, Texas 76503. A link to make donations online through PayPal can be found at ctlcministries.org.
Last year, CTLC provided more than 2.86 million pounds of food to 13,679 families in the Temple area, and that doesn’t include countless “homeless bags” handed out on a daily basis. A homeless bag includes meals and snacks that don’t require refrigeration or cooking — they can be consumed right away.
“We serve about 1,300 families every month,” Lloyd said. “Each family gets about 75 pounds of produce, meat and dry goods. We definitely are seeing the numbers rise.”
Groceries and personal items are distributed twice a week — from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday and from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the center prepares for the food distributions by receiving shipments from the Central Texas Food Bank and picking up donations from local stores.
“We get a truck from Central Texas Food Bank every Monday, and we unload and store the food,” Lloyd said. “We also pick up food from Walmart and other local retailers, and churches and civic groups have food drives for us. We bring in all the food, and package it in boxes and bags for distribution.”
The Top 10 needed items at US food pantries include:
Canned vegetables and beans (low sodium is best);
Whole wheat or vegetable pasta;
Pasta sauce in a can or plastic jar;
Peanut butter;
Boxed whole-grain crackers;
Whole grain, low sugar cereals;
Boxed granola and cereal bars;
Unsweetened applesauce cups;
Canned tuna in water;
Canned chicken, vegetable or bean soup (low sodium is best).
I wanna rock!
Hair Metal music and fireworks to highlight Fourth of July celebration in Temple
DAVID STONE | OUR TOWN TEMPLE
On the Fourth of July at Crossroads Park, glam rock will once again raise its big-haired head.
“We’re all about 1980s rock,” said Paul Ross, lead singer and frontman for Hair Metal Giants. “Poison, Bon Jovi, Warrant, Firehouse, Ratt, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe — we’ll be playing songs by the bands you love to hear. And, of course, we will have on the leather, Spandex and animal-print outfits, and that really big hair.”
Hair Metal Giants will be the featured entertainment at the 25th annual H-E-B Fourth of July Fun Fest & Fireworks Show. The band will crank up some “hair raising” sounds at 7 p.m., and the annual fireworks extravaganza will follow at 9:30 p.m.
“Temple is going to be a family friendly show so we will be playing our A-list,” Ross said. “We will play lots of fun songs to make you dance and move.”
While the band does encourage crowds to get up and dance, Temple city spokesperson Alli O’Connor encourages those attending the celebration to bring lawn chairs and blankets.
“Don’t forget the picnic basket,” O’Connor said. “You’ll want to get comfortable and watch a great rock band and the best fireworks show in Central Texas.”
According to Ross and JD DuPont, the band’s former drummer who now handles bookings through Black Hole Talent Management, today’s Hair Metal Giants has roots that go back to 2014.
“We played under a different name then, and we were a very different band,” DuPont said. “We played a lot of classic rock, pop and even some progressive country back then. We played just about everything, and it was hard to really define us.”
Ross said that prompted a big change in the band’s philosophy.
“We started thinking: ‘What really gets the crowd going and what really gets us performing at our best?’”
“When we played ‘80s rock, people had fun. They got up and they danced. Especially when we played hair metal.”
“We decided to be a tribute act, but instead of being a tribute to a specific band, we decided to be a tribute to the 1980s,” Ross said. “Sure, about 95 percent of what we play is hair metal, but we throw in some other ‘80s rock as well, such as Night Ranger, Journey and Prince songs that are heavy on guitar.”
In addition to Ross, who plays rhythm guitar and sings, Hair Metal Giants also features Jack Kittrell on lead guitar, Ken Carver on bass and Jungi Padilla on drums.
Padilla replaces DuPont, who is recovering from a runner’s injury.
“I love to run, and I was putting in three to five miles a day,” DuPont said. “But I blew my Achilles, and I’m about eight weeks into a six-month rehab.”
Now DuPont focuses on the business and production sides of the operation.
Hair Metal Giants shows have a unique feature: Giant screens on the side of the stage flash QR codes, and those attending the concert can access the codes through their cell phones. The link takes fans to a playlist where they can actually make requests.
“We have more than 100 songs in our catalog, and we usually play about 35 per show,” Ross said. “There’s a couple songs we like to do every time, but for the most part we can play a different show from night to night.”
CAC Fun Day is July 7
DAVID STONE | OUR TOWN TEMPLE
Get ready for a Freedom Week finale on July 7 with Family Fun Day at the Cultural Activities Center.
Lindsay Gabriel, visual arts coordinator at the CAC, said visitors will be thoroughly entertained from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“We are so excited about Family Fun Day,” Gabriel said. “This is our second year to hold this event, and we had a great turnout last year.”
The fun starts at 10 a.m. with a free showing of Ferdinand, a heart-warming animated story starring John Cena about a young bull who escapes from a training camp in rural Spain after his father never returns home from a showdown with a matador.
After the movie, grab a $5 lunch from High-Five Hot Dogs, and take in the latest art exhibits in the CAC’s four galleries. At 2 p.m., author Matthew Gollub will perform.
Gollub is an award-winning children’s author who combines storytelling and interactive drumming with reading and writing tips. He will be presenting a portion of his new book, Jazz Fly 3: The Caribbean Sea. It’s the story of a fly who loves jazz.
Gabriel said the CAC will be hosting complimentary art activities for kids.