Don’t believe that dogs can surf? Head to the 2016 Laguna Estate Noosa Festival of Surfing, which is running this coming weekend (March 5-6) for woofs, waves and wipouts – plus a whole heap of fun!

This will be the fifth year that VetShopAustralia, alongside co-sponsors Advantix, has hosted the Surfing Dog Spectacular and it will see Natural Balance dog trainer Chris De Aboitiz and his canine chums Rama, Milly and Murph attempt to get their paws on the 2016 ‘Best Wave’ trophy.

Chris and his surfing dogs have been making waves around the world. Check out this video of Chris with his dogs Milly and Rama catching waves on Sydney’s Northern Beaches: [Disclaimer, we don’t recommend that every Tom and his dog try this, we might have forgotten to mention that Chris is a former world tandem surfing champion, so he knows a thing or two about wave riding!]

While the event itself kicks off on Saturday March 5^th at 7.30am at The Spit in Noosa with a workshop for SUP beginners and their pups, the actual Surfing Dog Spectacular with Chris will take place on Sunday March 6^th at 4.30pm at First Point, Noosa.

Fancy getting your bow-wow on a board? Chris says any pet parents who are inspired to teach their dog to surf need to have a good relationship with their pet on dry land first.

“Pretty much all dogs can swim, but not all dogs like the water, so I would recommend initially starting off in shallow water and gradually build up to deeper water,” says Chris.

“Understand your dog and his or her behaviour. A lot of pet owners reward the wrong mind in a dog such as excited, nervous, aggressive, but what you should reward is calm and good behaviour.”