VIDEO: Daredevil dog goes skydiving with owner

ByRachel Schwartz WTVD logo
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
  (Nathan Batiste)
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VIDEO: Daredevil dog goes skydiving with owner (Nathan Batiste)
Nathan Batiste

Riley the dachshund mix may not be large in stature, but he proved to be quite the daredevil when he and his owner leapt from a plane at 13,000 feet to go skydiving together.

"I wouldn't just take any dog skydiving, but Riley's the kind of dog that as long as he's with you, he's cool," San Francisco photographer Nathan Batiste said.

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Batiste is no stranger to skydiving. A skydiving photographer and videographer, he's completed more than 400 jumps, although this was his first with a four-legged companion.

Batiste says the owner of Parachute Center in Lodi is a dog lover, so it's common for regulars to bring their dogs to the jump site.

"There's a joke that we do more skydives than any other dog park in the nation," Batiste said.

He began bringing Riley, a rescue Batiste estimates is about 4 years old, with him almost daily and soon realized that Riley seemed to have an interest in taking to the skies.

"He tried to follow me on the plane a couple times and I thought that was funny," Batiste said. "That's when I started thinking, 'Wow, maybe he wants to go on a ride with us.'"

So Batiste asked a friend to design a custom tandem harness for Riley and earlier this month, man and man's best friend made the jump.

Batiste says Riley seems to really enjoy the experience, especially being able to look around as they floated back to earth once the parachute deployed. Although he has nothing planned, Batiste says he sees more jumps in Riley's future.

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