CynoSports / AWI World Championships - Scottsdale, AZ

This is one of the biggest events of the year when we have 3 Disc Dog competitions happening ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

Part of the major appeal for this event is all the international flavor spicing up the cultural and competition menus! We have teams from Japan, Germany, The Netherlands, Canada, and elsewhere honoring the sport of Disc Dogging by traveling such great distances to compete. Its wonderful watching how these disc doggers from abroad, mostly new to the sport, have already transformed the game unto a new level of artistry, athleticism, and creativity! Watching, you can see how they have studied many of the American teams, but then they add twists from their own cultures. In many of the Japanese teams routines you can see a martial arts influence in the moves. To be honest, the first year we started seeing these teams in the US the judges were at a loss as to how exactly to judge these new moves. Disc dogging is not more about the human or the dog, it's about the teamwork and intertwining canine and human skill into a smooth flowing routine accentuating the canine's athleticism and the handler's skills. But early on, it was obvious that these new, and VERY TALENTED, disc dog teams were working out the balance as they would either focus too much on their own moves and throws (while spectators and their own dogs watched them), or they would focus too much on the dogs ability to fly high and far, over and over again.

But from what I have see on the internet, and heard, the balance has been struck! I'm writing this in 2008, looking forward to the AWI in La Mirada to see how these teams have progressed. In this, 2007 AWI, they were still working out the kinks, and still taking the top spots, as I will tell you below.

But one last comment on having so many disc dog teams from all over the United States, and around the world, is camaraderie and bonds that are built between people so different and from places so far apart. One tradition that is a blast is the trading and signing of Discs and buttons. Literally hundreds of different color and printed discs and buttons bartered back and forth. Everyone smiling, and everyone wanting each other to sign their discs.

Hero Disc sponsored the AWI and really did the event proud. Professional announcing, facilitated our international representation, and even had Bruce Jenner (of Olympic Decathlon fame) interviewing competitors as they left the field. Bruce has dogs of his own, and loved the show.

Also in attendance were legends of the disc dogging world, Alex Stein

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Alex Stein is renowned for his infamous visit to Dodger Stadium which ended up with him in Jail and his dog running through the hills around the stadium for a couple days. But in the middle of this seemingly tragic tale is the performance that launch the sport of Disc Dogging. Alex came to the ballpark, as thousands of other guests, with a ticket in hand and walked through the turnstyle. What made his entrance a little different was Ashley Whippet, his little hound, trailing behind him about 20 feet. The guard asked him if he knew the dog, and he shrugged and said nope. The dog just trotted on by the entrance into the park. After that Alex and Ashley played it low key as the game went on. I'm not sure if he bribed a guard or not, things were different back then, but when the 7th inning stretch Alex and Ashley jumped onto the field and wowed the crowd for about 7 minutes with 50 & 60 yard throws that Ashley would leap as high as 10 feet into the air to grab. Everyone was in awe, including the security guards who just sat and watched, not entirely sure if this was planned or not. This whole escapade was live and on National TV. The networks covered it as well, not turning away. And that is how the sport of disc dogs began.
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Tom Wehrli - Ashley Whippet Hall of Fame Inductee, & Ed Jakubowski - Ashley Whippet Hall of Fame Inductee.

The AWI involved 5 rounds of competition over two days.

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For this event Bailey and I had been working on a new routine, with the idea of adding a little bit of presentation to spice up our more horizontal influenced routine. You see, Bailey is a big hound in comparison to the rest of the competition. He weighs in anywhere from 69 pounds to 73 pounds. This is alot of dog to be flipping and flying through the air. And too much dog to have using me as a launching pad. So I design his routines to take advantage of his speed, drive, and catch consistency. This usually leave us a little short on some of the wow factor that can be achieved by flying 15 feet into the air, or being gracefully caught in mid-air. So to combat this, I choreographed a routine to the Swing hit from The Brian Setzer Orchestra "Jump Jive and Wail!" complete with slacks, suspenders, and a fedora hat. It really has seemed to help our scores and our appeal.
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After the first round of Freestyle, the Japan teams occupied 1st, 2nd, and 4th positions on the leader board! And a team from Germany was in 6th place. The US had only 2 teams in the top six slots. Chris Sexton & Banzai were in 3rd place and Steve Malmlov and Foster were in 5th place. It was amazing watching all these teams treat us to new twists on old tricks, and new tricks we had never seen before. The teams from Japan seemed to really work on their presentation, and it paid off!

Our routine wasn't quite up to snuff with the competition, but it got us close enough to make up ground with the Toss & Fetch.

The Toss and fetch round differentiates the one dimensional teams from the true champions. And the teams and the top 7 teams all showed they were there for the race. All top 7 teams scored double digits in their Toss & Fetch round. Only 1 of the top 8 teams failed to get double digits, and consequently that team fell out of the top 8. The best score in this round was 17.5 points, achieved by the first place team from Japan. WOW.

Bailey and I made our move during this round by scoring the second highest total of 16 points! This moved us firmly into the top 30 teams. In fact, we ended up around 20th place.

After the first round of Freestyle and Toss & Fetch the top 30 competitors advance to the second round of Freestyle and Toss & Catch.

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The second round of freestyle was pretty much a duplication of the first round scores, with the top contenders exchanging places, but no big surprises.

Bailey and I improved our scores slightly and managed to hang around the 20th place spot.

In the second round of Toss & Catch no one was able to beat the 17.5 posted in the first round. But two people did get 17. Our first place Japanese team Yoshihiro Ishida & Rusty, and Steve Malmlov & Foster!

Bailey and I disapointed in this round with a paltry 9 points. I later found out that I would have had to get an impossible 26 points to move into the top 12 spots. We finished in 29th place.

The top 8 competitors were taken to the final Freestyle round.

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The final round of freestyle was just a continued clinic by eventual champion Yoshihiro Ishida & Rusty. They dominated winning in the end by more than 12 points. The rest of the field was packed with Kouichi Nanba & Rey taking second and Chris Sexton & Banzai taking 3rd place. 3 of the top four spots were teams from Japan!

It was a great day and we are definitely looking forward to next year's competition.

Results: