American Ninja Warrior goes to the dogs in Atlanta

We’re already big fans of American Ninja Warrior here at Dog O’Day, but the Atlanta qualifiers were pet-themed, making it even better than usual.

American Ninja Warrior is a niche sport/TV show, but in theory, dogs could compete on roughly equal terms with humans at least on some of the obstacles. This idea was tested in the Atlanta City Qualifiers, as a handful of Very Athletic Doggos ran a Warped Wall to promote the upcoming film The Secret Life of Pets 2 from Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures.

Secret Life characters Snowball the rabbit (voiced by comedian Kevin Hart) and Daisy the (voiced by Tiffany Haddish) offered their reactions along with play-by-play announcer Matt Iseman and color commentary from Akbar Gbaja-Biamila.

Audience favorites like the K9 Ninja Roo Yori, ageless Travis Rosen, the Maker Ninja Kevin Carbone and the Real Life Ninja Drew Dreschel were some of the athletes competing the six-obstacle course.

The Shrinking Steps, a balance obstacle, started the course’s layout, followed by the jumping/swinging Off the Hook, then the treacherous balance obstacle Block Run came next. If you conquered that, then the climbing/trampoline obstacle Bouncing Spider was next, and then a new obstacle in the fifth spot, the upper body intensive Ferris Wheel. Finally, the 14-and-a-half foot Warped Wall ended the run, with an option to take the 18 foot Mega Wall instead for a $10,000 bonus.

With the Doggy Warped Wall (which didn’t seem to be quiet regulation height), Kevin Carbone’s dog Roxy was not able to conquer the wall in her try.

Icon the Belgian Malinois had no problem clearing the wall, getting Olympic snowboarder-type air, and Emily the Border Collie showed that girls can be just as good as the guys can. Mooney the Pit Bull conquered the wall, too.

A dog named Hedwig was by far the smartest, though she bent the rules out of shape. She veered off course and reached the summit by taking the stairs off to the side.

Roo Yori, a 42 year old Mayo Clinic medical researcher known as the K9 Ninja, runs the Wallace the Pit Bull Foundation, named after Wallace, an Incredible Dog Challenge freestyle flying disc champion.

His current dogs, Johnny and Juju, (they often appear on his Instagram) were there along with his wife to cheer him on.

Roo took some big hits, but managed to complete the course, becoming one of the nine ninjas to conquer it, and one of the 30 who advanced to the Atlanta City Finals.

Fans have been pledging various amounts per obstacle finished since the episode was filmed, and as a special surprise from NBC, Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, they donated $20,000 for the cause of dog adoption.

“This is gonna do great work, thank you so much,” an overcome Yori told sideline reporter Zuri Hall after the surprise donation announcement.

Real Life Ninja Drew Dreschel, who has been known to run the course while listening to the Mulan soundtrack, won the special bonus Power Tower race to earn an automatic ticket to the National Finals in Las Vegas.

Season 11 of American Ninja Warrior continues next week with the third episode, the Oklahoma City City Qualifiers, featuring such crowd-pleasers as Kingdom Ninja Daniel Gil and Sparkly Ninja Barclay Stockett.

I (Wesley) was able to attend the taping of the Oklahoma City City Finals in March, along with my brothers and mom. We froze due to a late cold snap, but it was a fantastic experience.