MADISON, Wis. — Little Morgan was positively dragging his handler, Mike Jackson, to the dock for one last jump in the Big Air finals at the Great Outdoor Games.

	Mike Jackson and Little Morgan resumed their winning ways Sunday.

Jackson was plodding along through the muddy grass of the staging area, tugging back at the dog's orange leash as Little Morgan, a lean, hyper black Labrador strained ahead.

Jackson lined the dog up and sent him off the dock for a jump of 22 feet, 9 inches — longer than any other dog jumped in the finals, but not as long as the 23 feet, 1 inch that Little Morgan cleared on his first jump for the gold.

While the other Big Air competitors were trying to catch Little Morgan, Little Morgan was trying to catch another record.

"The last throw was a gimme," Jackson said. "It was a glory throw. I changed and threw it with the other hand, that's why it was such a lousy throw. I was trying to do something different, maybe see if he could break the big one."

A big one for Little Morgan is about 26 feet, 6 inches, which was the world record he set at the Great Outdoor Games in 2002. Jackson knew Little Morgan, who has been leaping well short of the end of the dock, was unlikely to leap that distance.

"Overall, my main thing I was trying to do was have him jump within two or three feet of the end of the dock," Jackson said.

"Lately we've been jumping 27-, 28-foot jumps, but when you come off five or six feet early, then you've got a 22-foot jump."

Jackson's solution was to throw Little Morgan's target high and shorter. That led to several contorting falls for the dog, which would crane his head back and snap at the decoy.

But it also lead to a second gold medal for the 5-year-old, who placed second at last year's Great Outdoor Games.

"The throws aren't as good," Jackson said. "You don't have the nice, smooth, stretch-out-there Superman pose that he does on the nice, big jumps."

Sly took the silver with a finals jump of 22 feet, 6 inches. He had been training with Ken Butler for weeks, and hadn't been allowed to see his owner, Butler's nephew Jason Butler, until after the competition.

"They had to kind of hide him from me. Then he tried to maul me," Jason Butler said, pointing to huge water and mud splotches on his T-shirt.

Sly had tied for third in the second round, but Ken Butler elected not to take an optional jump that could have improved his standing for the finals.

"He's just a four-year-old dog, he's in his prime," Sly's handler, Ken Butler, said. "We passed in the first round because he started creeping on me, and I wasn't going to push the issue. The last throw I did, I was almost ready to go to the Frisbee."

Third-place Sparky nailed a jump of 22 feet, 3 inches on his first run in the finals. His handler, Milt Wilcox, knew he needed another foot or so to catch Little Morgan's jump. So he replaced the huge, bobbing red ball that he was tossing for Sparky with an object called a "groovy stick," a plastic toy that stinks like plastic vanilla. When Wilcox pulled it out of his pocket before the final jump Sparky went bonkers, then leapt 20 feet, 11 inches.

"He loves this toy. I was just trying to change something, give him something to look at. He did great. He had a great year and we enjoyed ourselves.

"We don't really train," Wilcox continued. "We actually just play with him."

Beau finished in fourth place, followed by Autumn, Skeeter, Jack and Daisy June.

Big Air - Final Standings

1 MIKE JACKSON/LITTLE MORGAN
2 KEN BUTLER/SLY
3 MILT WILCOX/SPARKY
4 CHRIS PIACUN/BEAU
5 BECKY HAVLINEK/AUTUMN
6 TERRY CASEY/SKEETER
7 RODDY REYNOLDS/JACK
8 WILL GUTMAN/DAISY JUNE
9 KEN BUTLER/DASH
10 WADE COPLIN/DWIGHT
11 TOM DROPIK/SARGE
12 DONNA AMES/DRACO

Results (By Round)

Final Round
1 Little Morgan 23'1" 22'9" Total:23'1"
2 Sly 22'6" 22'4" Total:22'6"
3 Sparky 22'3" 20'11" Total:22'3"
4 Beau 17'5" 20'2" Total:20'2"

Round Two
1 Little Morgan 24'1" 24'6" Total:24'6"
2 Beau 24'2" 0'0" Total:24'2"
3 Sparky 22'2" 22'4" Total:22'4"
4 Sly 22'2" 0'0" Total:22'2"
5 Autumn 20'10" 21'8" Total:21'8"
6 Skeeter 20'1" 21'5" Total:21'5"
7 Jack 19'4" 20'11" Total:20'11"
8 Daisy June 20'3" 20'4" Total:20'4"

Round One
1 Little Morgan 24'5" 23'11" 23'3" Total:24'5"
2 Sly 22'5" 21'11" 22'4" Total:22'5"
3 Beau 18'11" 17'2" 22'0" Total:22'0"
4 Daisy June 20'4" 21'1" 21'10" Total:21'10"
5 Sparky 20'4" 21'9" 21'9" Total:21'9"
6 Skeeter 19'1" 21'9" 18'9" Total:21'9"
7 Autumn 20'6" 20'9" 21'8" Total:21'8"
8 Jack 21'0" 21'6" 21'7" Total:21'7"
9 Dash 21'4" 20'10" 20'7" Total:21'4"
10 Dwight 20'4" 20'9" 19'10" Total:20'9"
11 Sarge 18'3" 20'3" 20'5" Total:20'5"
12 Draco 18'2" 15'6" 19'3" Total:19'3"