Ashley Whippet

Ashley Whippet (ca. 1971 – 1985), a Whippet owned by Alex Stein of Ohio, was the first notable disc dog and the winner of three Canine Frisbee Disc World Championships.

Ashley first gained notoriety on August 5, 1974 when Stein, then a 19-year-old college student, smuggled him into Dodger Stadium during a nationally televised Monday night baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds. Stein jumped the fence and went onto the baseball field with Ashley, where he threw discs (Frisbees) for the dog to catch. The crowd was in awe at Ashley's disc-catching ability, as he ran up to 35 miles per hour and leaped 9 feet in the air to snag the Frisbees. The stunt was so novel that the game was stopped and Joe Garagiola continued to announce the flying disc action on the field. Finally, after eight minutes, Stein was escorted off the field and arrested. The nationally televised exhibition of Ashley's skill did much to fuel interest in the disc dog sport.

The next year, Stein helped to organize the first Frisbee Dog World Championship for flying-disc catching dogs and their handlers, which continued as an annual event. Stein and Ashley won the first three championships in 1975, 1976 and 1977. In those early years the Dog World Championship took place alongside the "human" Frisbee championships at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Eventually, it turned into a contest series and, in the early 1980s, was named the Ashley Whippet Invitational (AWI) in honor of Ashley.

Ashley's skills as a disc dog were featured in the 1977 documentary entitled Floating Free, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Live Action Short Film. The eleven-minute short was shot at the 1977 World Frisbee Championships and showcases the various events at the competition.

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