Frisbees!

So happy.

25 brand new Frisbees just arrived and the dogs are as high as toddlers at Christmas.  Dublin spent the first night bringing them to me one by one from the other room where I had stashed them.  This is the inherent problem with hiding things from dogs, they can sniff them out.

The great Frisbee order of 2012 was delayed a few weeks by a printing backlog at the manufacturer, but I got in on the Colorado Disc Dogs group order and scored a great price on some quality Frisbees and didn’t have to pay for shipping:  15 x $ 1.85 for Hero Air 235 discs which normally sell for $4 and 10 x $2.90 for Hero Extra 235 discs which sell for $5.  I also traded a Hero for a Jawz Déjà Flew disc which normally sells for $17. I ended up with 25 new discs that cost $120+ for only $57.

Mercury is pretty happy too.

Here’s some video of Mercury enjoying his new discs:

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What the CDD bulk order looks like. Boxes and boxes of Frisbees.

I had planned on getting 30 super cheapo misprints for $1.80 a piece [goal of $48], but the CDD discount was too good to pass up, so I’ve updated the fund goal to $57 to cover the final actual cost.

Thanks to the awesome readers who donated to the Buy Dublin A Frisbee fund, $48.80 of that has already been covered and the season hasn’t even started yet. Thank you all for the generous donations, it does mean a lot to my dogs, just look at their faces.

The difference between the discs is rather striking when you subject them to four ravenous dogs who sometimes forget that plastic is not food.  Two brand new discs are on the left and three discs with about 2 days worth of use are on the right.  You can see how the more expensive discs hold up longer and the “Ultra-Tough” Jawz disc has no real visible wear.

You can also see what happens when the dogs make an exuberant catch and puncture the disc with their teeth. This starts to deform the inner rim, but as long as the thick outer ring remains intact, the disc will mostly fly true.

Once the dogs break the rim and the Frisbee loses structural integrity, the discs are done for throwing because they dump air too soon out the gap and they don’t hold the force of the trow well either (if you’ve ever split a Dixie cup you know just how little tension it will hold once the rim is broken).

I think the broken rims also feel funny or have a propensity to pinch the dog’s mouth, as Dublin hates broken discs.  When one does break, Dublin decides that he’s going to “fix” the disc by surgically removing what’s left of the rim with his teeth. He’ll sit down and diligently chew off the rough broken rim until it’s fully removed, just like a can opener working his way around a tin can.  His precision handiwork can be seen in the image above; the black disc with red imprint has had the entire rim removed by Dublin.

You can see why discs get punctured rather quickly with teeth like that.

Dublin is usually quite gentle with discs and so most of the punctures come from Mercury or when Celeste and Gemma also get into the act and fight over the discs after they’ve been caught.  I take the dogs out to the park separately to avoid too much disc carnage, but when we play in the backyard the Jawz comes in handy.

If you’d like to contribute to the 2012 Frisbee Fund, now is a good time. Thanks again to all you who have already given some Frisbees to my dogs, they’re enjoying them every nice day this spring.

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