The wonderful world of frisbee catching dogs

I was delighted to see this photo in The Times, on Saturday 17th September 2022, featuring these two dogs performing in the World Dog Frisbee Championships in Poznan, Poland. 

Once upon a time, I would do public demonstrations with ‘Stanley the Wonder Dog’ in England back in the late 1970s. Stanley was owned by Rob H., one of our frisbee team, the Ally Pally Tossers, and would always come out to play with us whenever we met to play together. He entered and won the European Frisbee Championships for several years in 1978 and 1979, I think, when it was held in England. Subsequently he went on to perform on ITV’s children show, ‘The Saturday Banana Show’, where I had the pleasure of being his accomplice. We also performed at a couple of First Division football matches as half-time entertainment, as well as at other venues.

Stanley was a wonderful companion to Rob H. and his partner Audrey, and would always join us when we met to play frisbee, mostly in Hyde Park, London, and later in Holland Park when the tossers gathered together. Stanley had his own yellow disc made of a much tougher plastic than our competition frisbees. He seemed to ‘know’ his own discs and would leave our frisbees alone as long as we regularly kept throwing his disc. When we entered him for the championships he of course won the event and became the European dog Champion. 

After he retired from tournament play, Stanley later went to live with Martin D., who had been an important person in the development of the early British frisbee world, when he was promoting the first frisbees available for sale in the UK. Martin then became an eminent lighting designer in the world of global rock music tours from the mid 1970s. I’d first bumped into him in 1975 through mutual friends and he later introduced me to the legendary Schneider Brothers from the USA, who showed me how to use a ’side-arm’ gri when throwing frisbees, which went on to become my favourite for long distance throwing. Thank you once again, Martin!

In America at the same time, the legendary Ashley Whippet was the top frisbee dog champion, and even managed to get his own obituary in the New York Times, if memory serves me well.

When I saw this article in last Saturday’s The Times newspaper here in England,  I couldn’t resist posting my snap of it for posterity and in memory of, and thanks, to our favourite dog Stanley, who was such a delight and friend of all the players, even those who didn’t throw his yellow discs for him!

I must credit the original photographer's copyright, Jakub Kaczmarczyk/EPA, (which I assume is the European Pressphoto Agency). Many thanks to them.