From an early age, Rudy was decidedly a disc dog. Bob Warwick’s son, Ron bought Rudy from a breeder in Forked River, NJ to keep him company. It wasn’t long before Rudy’s permanent home was with Bob. As Bob remembers, “Rudy wasn’t a good child. He did a lot of chewing: on hoses and stuff all over the house. I started taking him outside to tire him out, first with balls and sticks. Frisbees never caught on with our prior dog.” But he gave them a shot with Rudy and it wasn’t long before Rudy was catching the Frisbee before it hit the ground. Bob started keeping track of how many he could catch in a row and before either of them knew it, he was catching every single one. In June of 1996, Rudy entered his first Frisbee disc competition at the age of 8 ½ months and took third place. When asked if he was shocked Bob says, “we were very surprised. We’re still surprised.”
One glance at Rudy’s resume (literally, he has a resume posted online) reveals that whether it’s competitive in say, the Friskies ALPO Canine Frisbee Competition or just to strut his stuff for a group event or charity, this dog really does love his Frisbee. For guidance, once it was clear that Rudy had an aptitude for disc-catching antics, Bob purchased Peter Bloeme’s book Frisbee Dogs: How to Raise, Train, and Compete. Bob and Rudy trained every single day, once or twice a day – even in the dark! In colder weather Bob would have to be conscious of using a different kind of Frisbee, since the average Frisbee would shatter in the cold. Bob and Rudy have always competed in Distance /Accuracy events (as opposed to Freestyle-note sidebar).
Rudy’s competitions have taken him all over and around his Middletown, NJ home and beyond - from the Catskills of New York to Annapolis, MD and York, PA. Rudy and Bob’s favorite event was always the Catskill Classic that took place in the fall in Saugerties, NY. The location was always gorgeous with the leaves just turning. They became friendly with the couple that ran the event enjoying the fun barbecue held after the annual competition and…Rudy did pretty well too. It was actually at this event that Rudy tested for and passed his Therapy Dogs International (TDI), therapy dog certification and since then has done a lot of demonstrations in schools for delighted grammar school children. One of Bob’s daughters is a teacher at Wolf Hill School in Ocean Port, NJ where Rudy is a definite favorite. Nursing homes in the area all know Rudy’s name and in the fall of last year Rudy received nationwide attention on NBC’s Weekend Today In New York show as he helped to promote the Search & Rescue and Service Dog Day at the Intrepid. Little did NBC know the celebrity they were dealing with. When the security guard at the reception desk asked Bob for his picture ID, they couldn’t have guessed that Rudy was prepared for the stepped up security. Bob handed the guard both his own and Rudy’s drivers’ licenses. As Bob recalls, “You should have seen the look on the security guards’ faces – it was priceless!”
Rudy will celebrate his 9th birthday this year on September 29th. Over the past year, since Rudy was neutered in October he’s really slowed down and aged more, making his previous flying Frisbee antics harder. He continues to do the charity events that he loves and still competes now and then but doesn’t train or practice as hard or as often. Fortunately, Rudy has passed the torch along to his offspring. Rudy posted a personal ad during his search for a worthy mate seeking “a fine looking, trim athletic female (no bitches) Lab (AKC registered).” Perhaps the only personal ad ever posted with the explicit objective “to make puppies.” While Rudy received some taunting replies with accompanying photos from some lovely ladies that are posted on his site, he eventually found a dog in his neck of the woods, a yellow Lab named Lola from Bayonne, NJ with whom he sired a litter of eight puppies (including a litter born on his birthday). Of the litter, Bob kept one of Rudy’s sons, ‘Tyronne’ and one of Bob’s daughters kept one of Rudy’s daughters, ‘Margo’. Bob’s daughter Lauren had purchased a Labradoodle she named “Abby Doodle” from a poodle breeder in New Jersey. Lauren mentioned Rudy to the breeder and told her about Rudy’s web site. Before Lauren returned home from the breeder, she called Bob to see if Rudy would like to mate with her purebred standard poodle, Jasmin. Jasmin gave birth to a litter of six Labradoodles who were born on Rudy’s 8th birthday. It’s a very full house and a busy family, chock full of Lab lovers and Labs that just love to catch Frisbees. Bob’s son-in-law has caught on to the sport and trains Margo while Bob trains Tyronne.
With such a busy family life and age beginning to take its toll in terms of demanding Frisbee competitions, Rudy still manages to keep active. Bob laughs that, “Rudy is better known in our town than my kids are.” For the past three years, Rudy has performed at all but two of the halftimes for the Middletown South High School football team’s home games. Since he’s been performing, the team hasn’t lost a single game that he’s performed in. This past year, the Central New Jersey State Finals’ game was scheduled to be at Rutgers University Stadium and dogs were not allowed so Rudy wouldn’t be able to attend. The game was rescheduled due to a heavy snow storm and took place instead at the home field in Middletown three days later. Rudy was able to perform and naturally the team won. Those in the know of course attribute it to their Lab of Luck, Rudy.
Rudy still performs for charities throughout the year, especially a cluster of them during the fall with 4-5 events throughout September and October, including the Mutts Marathon benefiting a shelter in N.J., the Jersey Animal Coalition fundraiser, the Monmouth County SPCA Red Bank fundraiser and the Canine Companions for Independence fundraiser on Long Island, New York. Rudy, Bob and the Yankee Flyers Disc and Dog Club to which they belong have hosted a Skyhoundz Canine Disc Competition at Middletown’s Stevenson Park the past two years and have another scheduled for October 9th, 2004. Stop by and see Rudy, Tyronne and Margo in person.
If you can’t catch him and his amazing agility in person, Rudy is available 24-7 via the worldwide web. Seems that around the same time that he was learning to navigate the wide world of Frisbee, Rudy somehow found time to become Webmaster of “Rudy’s Frisbee Dog Site” which he established with the motive of “providing entertainment to other dogs and even some humans.” The site has had over 93,000 visitors and Rudy personally replies to all emails received through his site. A rather tricky promise to keep as he’s received emails from all corners of the world including Sweden, Germany, Canada, Japan, Holland, Australia, South Africa, Great Britain, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and all over the US (from Florida to Alaska). A winner in every facet of his career, Rudy has not only received awards for his Frisbee competitions but his site has garnered accolades as well. Visit his site and drop our August Lab of the Month, Rudy a line. Between Frisbee catching, swimming in the pool and family bonding time he’s promised to squeeze in a reply.
Tail End:
Interested in the art & sport of disc dog? If you've got a decent arm and a willing Lab, tear yourself away from the Animal Planet channel (where you can bone up on the rules of play,) and check out www.skyhoundz.com. You'll find dates of competitions and demonstrations, rules, and training tips. If you get really into it (lots of trainers do), you may soon be feeding Fido from a Frisbee and shelling out for a vaulting vest, so that you aren't scratched during those off-the-back Freestyle leaps. For more information, visit www.discdog.com, www.ufoworldcup.org and www.iddha.com
For your Hyperflite Flying Discs and Training Videos, check out our Toys and Treats Dept
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