Saturday, August 5, 2017

Who Started This Sport of Disc Dogs?


Have you ever wondered who started this sport of disc dogging? (Or as some call it, Frisbee dogs!) I have wondered about the history of this sport or more specifically, why on occasion I experience the occasional claw in the back of the neck that oozes vital life fluids?


Believe it or not the sport of disc dogs became a public thing on August 5th, 1974, a 19-year-old named Alex Stein broke out onto the field of a nationally televised baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds, with his dog, Ashley Whippet, and started doing tricks on the field.

While on the field he had his dog hitting high speeds and allegedly chasing 90-yard tosses and jumping high in the air to catch the discs Alex threw.

His demonstration started in such an entertaining fashion that rather than sending the cops out immediately to nab the trespasser, they stopped the game and let them play for 8 minutes. In fact one of the TV announcers continued to announce... the dog action!

At the end of it, Alex was arrested and hauled off for trespassing. No one from the PD bothered with the dog, but Ashley was caught by a kid in the stands and Alex and Ashley were reunited several days later. But it was worth it because they had made their mark on the world, letting people know what kind of fun people can have with dogs and discs.

How did this crazy idea of Alex's come about?

Some Back Story:

A few years before that night, Alex Stein received a dog as a gift from a girlfriend, and according to sources, when his dog was at a ripe young age of 3 weeks old, Alex figured his dog would be famous.  He named him Ashley Whippet.

While he was a puppy, Alex weened him using Frisbees to feed him. Then as the dog got older and Alex would throw a disc, the dog would go after it! What's astounding is that at the ripe young age of 6 months, Ashley reportedly was able to get 12 feet in the air to catch discs.

{Safety Thought: Now-a-days, there are age restrictions of 18-months on young dogs in competitions so they do not injure their growth plates at an early age.  A growth plate injury might not be evident right away, but will make its presence known in their latter years.}

Aside from that, Alex spent a lot of time taking his pup to the college greens and having fun while crowds gathered and watched.

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Back to it...

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Dogs And The Fourth of July, Take Protective Measures


In a nutshell, if your dog does not like fireworks, keep them indoors for the few days leading up to July 4, and maybe even a day after. And microchip or double check that your microchip info is up to date. Just in case.

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The Fourth of July is coming and most dog custodians know that with July 4th, some dogs can get pretty frightened or skiddish from the loud bangs going off in the sky all around them.

To dogs, fireworks are unnatural, shocking, and downright scary. Like the sky itself is barking at them and ripping apart. And that ain't right!

The sad and scary part of this entire process is that it's not just the fourth of July you have to worry about, but the week leading up to and possibly a few nights after the holiday.

That's because sometimes people feel the need to 'practice' with their big loud bang-makers before the big night. And for me, that's when I think some dog owners can be at the most risk, those days leading up to the fourth and not expecting it. A peer of mine in the disc dog world lost his dog to testing that took place a few nights prior to the 4th. And if a well trained disc dog can be impacted by this stuff, you do the math.

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When fireworks and the like go off animals can react in different ways. Some don't care one bit. (If you're lucky.) Others will freak a bit, looking around, wondering what the hell is that!? Others will bolt for parts unknown in the house, hide under things or what not. They'll shake and shiver, possibly thinking the world is ending.

We know the world isn't ending. They don't.



Monday, June 5, 2017

Vader's Halftime Show Appearance At Avaya Stadium Over Memorial Day Weekend

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Vader, as part of the Disc Dogs of the Golden Gate Frisbee dog show team, took part in some of the halftime events at Avaya Stadium, while the SJ Earthquakes faced off against the LA Galaxy team! Unfortunately LA won, 4 - 2!

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But be it as it may, the disc dog show team went out and "played" with our pups and as always, we had quite the blast as we pulled off some moves and hearing the near-18k-strong audience cheering for each jump and catch!

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Maybe next time we can bring better luck to the SJ Earthquakes!

You can see all our pics over on Vader's Flickr Album!

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Vader's Upcoming Slow 2017 Season

Team Vader's 2017 disc dog schedule

A lot is going on behind the scenes here at Vader's World and because of that, our participation schedule for some events are getting minimized. Hence, Team Vader's 2017 competitive season might be a bit shorter than past seasons.


At the moment, due to various reasons working against our calendar, we are looking at participating in ONLY four local tournaments this year, and the big one the dogs will miss will the season closer for our local, Northern CA disc dog club! That's it.  It's kind of a bummer, but it is what it is. That is fairly disappointing because it is minimizing Lark's chances to land on the podium at any of our local events. Unless of course, old man Vader decides to take a bow out and let Lark go in his place!

But we are considering on competing in the Purina ProPlan Incredible Dog Challenge (PPIDC) Western Regional Qualifier show on June 9th down in Huntington Beach, CA.  The PPIDC holds contest shows in agility, weave, diving dog, Jack Russell hurdle racing, surf dogs and of course, our corner of the world, freestyle flying disc dogs!


Monday, March 20, 2017

Vader's Cute Moment of the Week, If Not Ever

Disc Dog fans cab be so cute

So there we were, Vader and I were playing around in the local park. Vader was doing some spins, me some flips... OK, that's a lie. If I ever flipped it would be a one-way trip planting myself in the grass to sprout in the spring!

But Vader and I were practicing and there was a little girl, her name I later learned was Sarah, she was around eight or nine years old, and she was watching us from afar. She seemed interested but shy.

So I 'accidentally' tossed a disc in her direction and ambled over towards her and started chatting with her.


Turns out she comes to the park almost every day at this time and liked watching me practice with my dog.

I told her why I was practicing and she told me it was a good thing to practice things.

She then dug into her pocket, pulled out fifty cents and offered me her money, saying it wasn't ,much and probably won't buy much for dog toys but she really liked the show.

Tears almost welled up in my eyes... I'm sure it was just allergies, and I told her that we do shows for free for some people and that she should hang on to her money for something else for herself.

She said thanks and she hopes to see me and my dog some more at the park.

Some small fans can be so cute!

Thursday, February 9, 2017

The 2017 Solano Home And Garden Show In Dixon CA

Solano Home And Garden Show In Dixon CA


UPDATE: The Disc Dog Demonstration part of this weekend has been cancelled due to flooding in our performance area! Splash Dogs will still be there!!!

This upcoming weekend, on February 10-12, 2017, the Solano County Home & Garden Show will be taking place in Dixon, CA. This weekend's show is sponsored by Greiner Heating, Air, & Solar Enegry Inc., Ron DuPratt Ford, Best Western Plus, The Home Depot, Northern California Roofing, Aaction Rents and Ashley Homestore.

The Solano County Home & Garden Show will be bringing a ton of vendors and exhibitors to one location to showcase their products and services to the general public. It will be taking place at the Dixon Fairgrounds located at 655 First Street, Dixon, CA.

2017 Solano Home And Garden Show

There are so many vendors that there are too many to mention here, but one of the "vendors" will be the Disc Dogs of the Golden Gate and Splash Dogs!

Yes, this is a dog friendly event.

Disc Dogs of the Golden Gate will be at the event on Saturday and Sunday, with disc dog demonstrations taking place at 11AM and 2PM. Plus between shows, we'll be hanging out conducting impromptu practice sessions and playing around with our pups.

It will be fun! (It would have been fun!)

Dock Diving at the 2017 Solano Home And Garden Show In Dixon CA


Splash Dogs will also be having their own special kind of fun, with dock jumping and dock diving events all weekend.

They'll also have some live bands.

So if you're in the area, you should come by and check out the fun!  DDoGG will be located in the K9 Carnival section of the event.

List of Vendors:  https://www.solanohomeshow.com/-our-vendors

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FEBRUARY 10TH, 11TH & 12TH
Friday: 12:00 PM - 6:00PM
Saturday: 10:00AM-6:00PM  
Sunday:  10:00am-5:00PM   

There is an admission fee, but you can get admission discount coupons at Vacaville & Fairfield Home Depot.

https://www.solanohomeshow.com/


Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Illegal Fireworks Can Kill Family Members, Whether You Know It Or Not


Twice a year dog owners take the time to brace themselves for the inevitable idiocy of private citizens firing off illegal or other fireworks in their neighborhood streets. More times than naught, someone, somewhere, no matter how prepared, pays the price when an ill-timed surprise boom goes off from the house down the street and scares their family pet.

On a few occasions, I have been a peer or neighbor of such a tragedy and of late, I found a neighbor's dog after it was startled by an illegal firework. But in this case, what I found were remains of their pup on the the nearby freeway. The header image is all that I dare post, the rest was just too much to bear or look at again.

I did not appreciate the ass-hat who set off the firework that petrified this poor pup to charge head on, out of fear, to wherever her feet would take her. I did not appreciate having to look closely at the remains of this poor victim of stupidity.

What tore my heart out was when we contacted the owners and watched their grief come forth as they confirmed it was indeed their pup, the love of their life, laid out there between freeway lanes. And with them, my heart broke for them and while they stood in shock, I cried for them.

All because of an illegal and "fun" firework that was set off.

This isn't the first time I've been privy to someone I know losing a dog to fireworks and it probably won't be the last time.

When a pup gets scared, it runs. It does not use its brain. It does not use its training. It does not use habit. Nature takes over and they just all out, run and run and run. Logic goes out the window. Normal reasoning is gone. It's the fear that takes over and drives them until they're exhausted. They don't look, they don't slow, they just run.