As young dogs, our bullies loved catching Frisbees. And it's no small feat for bulldogs - they don't have the long snouts like other dogs to nab it out of the air - they have to time it perfectly to scoop it with their underbite, or risk getting pelted in the face! Our girl, especially, was great at it - I think it was not only her athleticsm, but the extra 2" of lower jaw that helped her hook 'em!
Look at that jaw! Perfect for scooping Frisbees out of the air!
The only bad part about the Frisbees was that she would grind up her teeth on the plastic to get it off the ground, and the shredded plastic would then ultimately have dangerous shards. Off to the store to get (yet another) new Frisbee.
Try to ignore the fact she's wearing a pink pleather motorcycle jacket...it was Halloween! It was cute! Really!
Our male was the one who finally led us to the soft Granite Gear disc that ended up being the best for both of them. He used to like chasing and catching Frisbees, too. He wasn’t particularly good it, unlike our female, but he had a good go of it. I think that he wasn’t particularly great since he tended to close his eyes when he jumped in the air. Uh, yeah, that led to a lot of ‘misses’ (but a lot of laughs).
But then something turned him off of the Frisbee altogether. And that ‘something’ was a 10 year old niece with even worse aim than our bulldog.
When we left our dogs with our favorite future veterinarian and her family before heading off on a week long trip, we armed her with all the meds, shampoos, instructions and, of course, toys, that they would need. Including their favorite Frisbees. When we returned, one of the first things we did was joyfully whip out the Frisbees, prepared to play with our dogs in the backyard. While our female showed the same enthusiasm as usual, our male practically cowered and then growled at the thing! A little confused, we called our niece and asked if anything had happened. She replied with an innocent “no”. When we asked her further, mentioning our bullie’s weird reaction to the Frisbee, she said she played with them every day. And, uh, she may have accidentally hit him in the head with it. Once. Or...uh, maybe twice. Er...maybe a few times.
Well, suffice to say, our male had lost all confidence in playing with the plastic Frisbees.
We tried getting a variety of other soft discs, but our female would tear through them in an instant. And if they had different discs, then she would, of course, try to see what our boy’s cool new thing was and a bit of a tussle would ensue. Then, finally, the Granite Gear disc. It is soft, but sturdy, with strong, flat edges so the bullies can easily carry them, tug them, and even chase after them rolling on the ground – something most soft discs can’t do.
You should have seen our boy’s face when we tossed this disc to him and he realized it wouldn’t hurt him – his eyes grew big and sparkled, and his love of flying objects returned! He still doesn’t have the best aim, but at least, now we don’t have to have great aim, either. (check out the reviews of it on this site – lots of folks write about how durable it is!)
July 9, 2009 
