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I’m no Tiger Woods. And my dog, Badger, is no Steve Williams (Tiger’s caddy). But when it comes to disc golfing together, we have as much fun as Ty Webb and Danny Noonan.
“Just be the ball, be the ball, be the ball. You’re not being the ball Danny.”
“It’s hard when you’re talking like that.”
Hiring a caddy to carry your golf clubs on an 18-hole championship golf course is nothing new. But bringing your canine companion along to carry your golf discs for 18 disc golf holes is nothing short of brilliant. I found this out on Friday when Badger and I played the Alpine Disc Golf Course at Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort just outside Bend, Oregon.
Badger waits in the trees for squirrels to fall from the trees into his Approach Pack.
Jack, Ricky and Lucy Smile for the Camera (instead of fetch the disc)
With the aerodynamic question solved, we headed down to the Deschutes River to test the buoyancy of several flying discs. To make sure our toys didn’t litter the tributary and our pants stayed dry, we employed two Golden Retrievers (Lucy and Ricky) and a Husky/Shepherd mix named Jack.
To our surprise, the Golden’s didn’t live up to their job title – Retriever. Both Goldens and Jack stood chest deep in the water and watched as the first disc floated downstream. And this isn’t a class IV whitewater section or anything. It took a solid 5 minutes for the disc to meander out of view.
Lesson learned, and our later tests of retrieval were accomplished in the shallowest sections. We learned what we could from the buoyancy tests (and watched the dogs get covered in mud). But we couldn’t get that first disc out of our minds. Read the rest of this entry »
So the Product Team and I spent our workday on the front lawn throwing flying discs back and forth and playing fetch with resident canine fetch machine, Nellie. Yep, that was our day, and we were getting paid, benefits, everything for playing fetch. Sound like a dream job? It is for me, but really it is all part of our ongoing design process. Design, test, design, test, design, test, hug your test dog, design, test, design, test, product release.
My dog Badger is a total spaz. That’s the only excuse I have. Well, and the fact that he’s gained 10 pounds since our baby was born six months ago. He partially tore his Achilles tendon last week when he slipped on our wood floors after I casually mentioned a potential “walk” later in the day. Like I said, total spaz.
