Dallas Dog & Disc Club

The year was 1986. Ronald Reagan was in his 2nd term, a first class stamp was 22 cents, we were all mourning the loss of the Challenger and her crew, Chernobyl had been evacuated and 100s were dead or dying, and the Supreme Court was reaffirming abortion rights.

The Chicago Bears were Super Bowl Champions and the N.Y. Mets were on their way to a World Series Championship. Steve Winwood and Paul Simon were winning Grammy's, Dionne and Friends were at the top of charts with That's What Friends Are For and Fox was becoming the fourth television network.

L.A. Law, Moonlighting, Cagney and Lacey, Cheers, and Magnum P.I. were big hits on television, while on the big screen Platoon won the Oscar for Best Picture. And, I was entering my first ever Frisbee Dog competition.

In mid 1985 I had decided that I wanted a dog and stumbled across a book by Karen Pryor, How to Teach Your Dog to Play Frisbee. This book (out of print) was an outstanding training manual and mentioned a number of breeeds that excelled in the sport. The book also offered a mailing address to the Ashley Whippet Invitational along with the phone number to a place to buy Frisbees.

Up to this point my only exposure to Frisbee dogs was in the mid to late 70's with a family pet named Rusty. Rusty was a very cool little Cattle Dog that loved the Frisbee. But at the time it never occurred to me that there might be such a thing as Frisbee Dog Competition.

Well, finally in November of 1985 I found a cute little Border Collie puppy. Together Flash and I started down an amazing path that has filled my life with a wealth of wonderful moments, memories, and enduring friendships.

In 1986 no one showed up at the competitions I attended with tents for shade, kennels for their dogs or ice chests full of sport drinks or store bought bottled water. In those days if you were hot you usually had to look around for a shade tree to camp under, and if you were thirsty there always seemed to be someone around with a healthy and sometimes unhealthy supply of cold beer. I don??t remember anyone using a van for dog and equipment transport and of course at that time no one knew what an SUV was. For a number of years I could have gotten to any competition I entered in a two seat sports car. Also in 1986 no one owned or needed a vaulting vest.

1986

The AWI community throw and catch competitions took place on a 17 yard circle and the maximum distance in the regional mini-distance event was 30 yards.

There was interesting admonition in this year's guidelines that stated - Male dogs should compete first to avoid distractions.

The Regional competitions were four round events with semifinals occurring at a local park and the finals taking place as a pre-game activity at a professional baseball or football game. In 1986 the World Championship Finals took place prior to the Washington Redskins game at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The preliminary rounds occurred earlier in the day on the grounds of the Smithsonian Mall.

The judging criteria has changed over the years.

The following is the freestyle judging criteria from the 1986 Ashley Whippet guidelines:

• Showmanship
  A demonstrated ability by the dog/owner to perform crowd-pleasing, unique, novel or even trend setting aerobatics, (starting or ending with disc in flight), requiring a high degree of ingenuity, teamwork and precision timing.
• Execution
  The degree of consistency with which dog catches routine throws and makes the extra effort to complete difficult catches, even if not always successful. (emphasis added by author)
• Leaping Ability
  Throws by the owner in a manner ideally suited to showcases the dog's ability to make exciting and even spectacular mid-air catches vertically and horizontally, with a degree of consistency, style and grace.
• Degree of Difficulty
  A demonstrated ability by the owner to challenge the dog with throws that have different spins and angles, at varied distance, skip flights off the ground, as well as throws where dog does not have eye contact before release, but is consistently at the right place at the right time to make the catch.

At this time the AWI had seven Regional Finals. They included the Mid-Central, Mid-Atlantic, Far West, Southwest, Midwest, North Central, and the Southeast.

There was something else occurring in 1986 – an attempt to level the playing field. From the 1986 Ashley Whippet Guidelines:

Note: In order to balance the experience factor gained by those contestants who have made it to the World Finals in previous years, and thus provide more of equal opportunity to others, a compensatory system was established, as follows:

REGIONAL FINALS:
Any thrower/dog team which previously competed at World Finals will start Round 3 minus 1 point. If a former World Finalist competes with a new dog at Regional Finals, the team will start Round 3 minus 1 point.

World Finals:
Any previous World Finalist team will start minus 1/2 Point for each year competed.
Any previous World Finalist thrower with a new dog will start minus 1/2 point for each year competed.
Any previous World Champion team starts minus an additional 1 Point.

During the World Finals, judges may, at their discretion, award a maximum of Two Bonus Points for the contestant(s) with the most spectacular Leaping Ability.

This was also the year that Ron Ellis came up with the original and truly unique idea of starting a local club comprised of people who enjoyed playing Frisbee with their dogs. A club where anyone and everyone could come together with their dogs for the camaraderie and chance to share, learn and grow. A wonderful and distinctive idea that has transformed our sport.

1988

In 1988 the Ashley Whippet Guidelines replaced Leaping Ability with Agility and the categories had simply become Showmanship and Agility and Difficulty and Execution. Scoring was still based on 10 points per category with 40 points possible.

In addition, the compensatory system added the following text:

The maximum number of Points deducted for being a previous World Champion or World Finalist will be 3?? points.

The bonus point system had also been changed. According to the 1988 AWI Guidelines:

During World Finals, judges may, at their discretion, award up to Two Bonus Points for the dog with the most spectacular performance in Freeflight rounds; and make a similar award for the most innovative Freeflight routine.
Order of finish for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each category may, at judges option, earn bonus points for World Finalist.

The World Finals were held at Walt Disney World in Florida.

Also by 1988 the there had become only six regional qualifier events rather than the seven in place in 1986, and the stadium finals had become a post-finals exhibition with the Regional Champion and Runner-up being invited to perform with the Cycle Celebrity Team.

Also, by this year everyone seemed to have discovered the vault and numerous variations and styles were sweeping the country.

The Vault: It is still debated who first conceived, envisioned, and executed the first true vault. But my money would have to be on Ron Ellis. The Statue of Liberty move (a modified leg vault to a take as well as an over the back or off the back take) had been around for a number of years and variations were used in competition by Bill Murphy, Pepper Nichols, Peter Bloeme, and others. Then a grainy photograph was published a 1986 or 1987 issue of the K-9 Disc Master newsletter of Ron Ellis, with his dog Maggie doing a true back vault. In late '86 or early '87 I was at the park with Ron and Maggie and as Ron explained his idea for this new trick I stood there and told him that even if it worked the timing would be impossible. We had both been doing over the back takes, but this idea was radical. I stood and watched in amazement as the back vault was born.

1989

1989 found the sport without an official sponsor, but thanks to Irv Lander??s tireless efforts and financial contributions the AWI had a successful year capped off with a World Finals held at the State Fair of Texas.
This was also the year that Jeff Perry and his awesome dog Gilbert put on spectacular and vaultless routine and in the process put a big exclamation point on the false belief that vaulting was now a necessary component of any World Championship team.