Articles

 

Tillman Rides On

Maryann Mott

For Dog Fancy magazine

January 2010

 

Some dogs are just born with raw natural talent. That’s the case with Tillman. With no formal training, the bulldog excels at not one, but four different land and water sports.

You’ll be able to see the four- year-old dynamo in action as he shows off his snowboarding skills on Natural Balance Pet Food’s massive float during the Rose Parade, televised worldwide on New Year’s Day,

Craftsmen spent nearly a year building a ski resort scene complete with a Swiss chalet perched high in a pine tree forest. It’s the longest single chassis float in the parade’s history, the company says, measuring 112 feet long, 18 feet wide and 24 feet tall.

As the float meanders for more than five miles through Pasadena during the parade, Tillman and his “sister” Rose will snowboard down a 50 foot slope blanketed with artificial snow. At the bottom, a motorized ski lift will whisk the bulldogs back up the hill so they can do it all over again for the 40 million viewers expected to tune-in.

“It’s absolute paradise for Tillman and Rose because there’s nothing they’d rather be doing than riding their boards down a hill,” says the dogs’ owner Ron Davis of Oxnard, California.

In 2005, Davis purchased Tillman as a Mother’s Day gift for his wife, Erika, but the tiny pup preferred hanging out with the guys.  He quickly became obsessed with skateboarding, learning how to ride at the tender age of seven-months by watching Davis’ other dog, a 125 pound Rottweiler, and their son, Reef.

“It’s not something I ever made him do,” says Davis of the dog he affectionately nicknamed Pot Roast. “He just absolutely loves skateboarding.”

National fame came two years later when a YouTube video of the 60 pound dog skateboarding led to an appearance on Apple’s iPhone commercial.

Today, Tillman, like all celebrities, has an agent to book jobs and handle contract negotiations.

Last year the boisterous bulldog competed against 11 other canines and their owners on the CBS reality show, Greatest American Dog, judged by Dog Fancy’s editor-at-large, Allan Reznik.

Tillman – who also surfs and skimboards -- is now a spokesdog for Natural Balance, with his own line of training treats, and is a popular guest at private parties and charity events.

Davis says Tillman’s true talent is his ability to make people smile.

“Anyone from eight-months-old to 80-years- old just cracks up when they see him flying by on his board,” he says, “And that, to me, is the best thing about him.”

 

Maryann Mott is a pet writer based in Arizona.