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Home | Dog Sports | What’s New | About | Contact | Store | Links

Agility | Conformation | Disc Dogs | Dock Diving | Earth Dog Trials | Flyball | Herding | Field Trials & Hunting | Lure Coursing  Obedience | Rally- O | Schutzhund & Protection Dogs | Therapy Dogs | Tracking | Pulling Sports

Disc Dog History

As the sport of Frisbee gained popularity in the early 1970s, playing Frisbee with dogs was a natural extension. But the sport experienced its defining moment at a Major League Baseball game in 1974. While it is unlikely that many people recall the final score of the Dodgers versus Reds game that day, anyone watching the nationally televised game likely never forgot the disc dogs display. Alex Stein, a 19-year-old college student from Ohio, jumped the fence with his dog, Ashley Whippet. He proceeded to toss several frisbees to Ashley, who impressed the crowd with her catching and fetching abilities. She was recorded as running up to 35 miles per hour and jumping 9 feet vertically to catch the discs.

The baseball game actually came to a halt during Alex and Ashley’s stunt, and announcer Joe Garagiola went right on announcing...the flying disc action on the field! The show continued for eight minutes before the disc team was escorted off the field and Alex was arrested. But their mission was accomplished as the sport of disc dogs exploded across the nation.

Alex Stein went on to create the Frisbee Dog World Championship for disc dogs in 1975 and he and Ashley captured the title for the first three years. During the early years, the competition was held alongside the Junior Frisbee Disc Championships – a human-only event – at the Rose Bowl in California.

By the early 1980s, the Frisbee Dog World Championship had developed into a contest series and was renamed the Ashley Whippet Invitational (AWI). The local and regional events turned out winning teams who qualified for the finals. Until the mid-1990s this was the only organization for disc dog competitions and the AWI was the only championship event. Todd Murnan and his Belgian Malinois Bella are the current (2009) Champion team at the Ashley Whippet Invitational Worlds.

The first organized club was founded in the mid 1980s  - the Dallas Dog and Disc Club. Today, there are hundreds of local clubs throughout North America and across the world. To find a club in your area, check here.

In 2000, Skyhounds took over the World Canine Frisbee Disc Championship for one year and has since run its own championship event – the Hyperflite Skyhoundz World Canine Disc Championship. They now sanction the largest disc dog competition series in the world.

Check out the AthleticDogs.com store for disc dog products!