A four-year-old Australian shepherd named Chardonnay became a Guinness World Records holder on June 14 after bounding across the backs of 56 people lined up in the outfield of an Edmonton Riverhawks baseball game, setting the mark for most jumps between people by a dog in one minute.
Chardonnay, trained and owned by Jennifer Fraser, needed only about 16 seconds to complete the run — a fraction of the 60-second window Guinness allows for the category — hopping from back to back down a line of volunteers, mostly fans recruited from the stands at the West Coast League team's ballpark. The stunt was arranged as a between-innings promotion, one of a growing number of Guinness attempts hosted by minor and independent baseball clubs looking to draw attention on a summer night.
Fraser, who has built a following training dogs for agility and trick performances, said Chardonnay's back-jumping routine is just one item in a broader repertoire that includes skateboarding and scooter tricks. Footage of the run, released publicly in early September, shows the dog moving in a smooth, confident line with barely a hesitation between backs.
"We're looking at breaking it again."
Jennifer Fraser, Chardonnay's trainer
The category joins a long list of canine entries in the Guinness World Records catalog, which tracks everything from the highest jump by a dog to the fastest time to pop 100 balloons. Records involving trained animals and live human participants require witnesses, video documentation and, in this case, cooperation from dozens of fans willing to bend over in a row for the cameras.
Fraser has said she and Chardonnay plan to attempt the record again, aiming to add more people to the line and shave further time off the run — a rematch that, if it happens, would likely take place at another ballpark eager for a novelty half-inning of its own.
