Frisbee Dog World Championship

The Frisbee Dog World Championship (also known as the Ashley Whippet Invitational World Championship and the Canine Frisbee Disc World Championship) is an annual competition for disc dogs.

In 1975, Irv Lander, Alex Stein and Eldon McIntire first organized a World Championship for flying-disc (Frisbee) catching dogs and their handlers. The event continued annually. Stein and his disc dog, Ashley Whippet, won the first three championships in 1975, 1976 and 1977. McIntire was the owner of another disc dog named Hyper Hank. Lander worked for Wham-O, the maker of the Frisbee, which is a registered trademark of Wham-O. He was a promoter of the Junior Frisbee Disc Championships, an event for humans. In the early years the championship took place alongside the "human" Frisbee championships, sponsored by Wham-o, 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). The competition series included local and regional events where dog and handler pairs would qualify for the Ashley Whippet Invitational World Finals Championship. Until the mid-1990s there was only one organization for disc dog competitions. For many years the AWI World Finals was the only championship event.

The final event was contested as a one-day, "winner take all" type event. The early qualifying format included 4 to 6 regionals with the 1st and 2nd place teams each earning a trip to the World Finals Championship. It was a closed regional system, meaning that the dog and handler team had to live and compete in the geographical area of the regional qualifier competition. Anywhere from 8 to 16 teams would qualify, depending upon the format and number of regional qualifiers that year.

Early tournaments were "Throw and Fetch" contests. Some were judged on style points, others on distance, others on standing in a circling throwing out, and still others on throwing into a circle.

Peter Bloeme got involved with the disc dog sport in the early 1980s, after winning the 1976 Men's World Frisbee Championship and won a Frisbee Dog World Championship in 1984. He then "retired" from competition and began to work for AWI as a judge and event coordinator. Peter Bloeme pushed the sport in the direction of multiple disc "Freestyle" contests, which changed the disc dog game forever. Over time the World Finals Championship was modified to include a freestyle event (sometimes known as "Freeflight"), and a timed throw and catch event (known as "MiniDistance," and later as "Distance/Accuracy").

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