‘Dog Frisbee’ Marks a Fetching Milestone : Entertainment: Twenty years ago, Van Nuys promoter Irv Lander helped launch a new sport.

Even a promoter as adept as Irv Lander could not have staged what took place at Dodger Stadium on the evening of Aug. 5, 1974.

Before a national television audience, Alex Stein and his dog, Ashley Whippet, dashed onto the field and into a well-choreographed routine of long, hovering throws and running, leaping catches of a plastic flying disc.

The crowd roared. Slack-jawed security guards watched for eight minutes before ending the unauthorized performance. NBC broadcaster Joe Garagiola, speaking for millions of home viewers, exclaimed that he had never seen anything like it.

Lander, a self-employed Van Nuys advertising agent with a history of promoting kooky contests, wasn’t about to let what he had just witnessed slip from his grasp. He trailed after Stein, bailed him out of jail and paid his $250 fine.

“I was dazzled by the dog,” Lander said during a recent interview. “He could run 35 miles per hour and catch a Frisbee in his jaws. I immediately had a vision for it.”

Two decades of promotions and publicity stunts later, “canine Frisbee,” as the sport is officially known, is celebrating a milestone. And Lander, founder and executive director of the Canine Frisbee Disc Championships, remains top dog of the far-fetched pastime that has attained its own niche in pop culture.

The 20th world championships will take place Saturday on the grounds of the Washington Monument in the nation’s capital. Six months of community and regional competitions involving more than 5,000 dogs will culminate with 14 finalists vying for the Lander Cup, the annual trophy named after Irv Lander. The winners also receive a $1,000 savings bond and a year’s supply of dog food.

More than 10,000 spectators attended last year’s event at the same venue. In previous years, Lander, who still lives in Van Nuys, has presided over the world championships at the Rose Bowl, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., the Astrodome in Houston, RFK Stadium in Washington and Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Ever the publicity hound, Lander spends time between competitions coordinating exhibitions and soliciting the participation of celebrities, sports figures, politicians--anyone whose persona might help promote canine Frisbee.

In 1976, Lander presented organizers of the Democratic National Convention with 1,000 Frisbees, each emblazoned with the names of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. A year later, Lander and Alex Stein were guests at the White House, where Ashley Whippet retrieved Frisbees thrown by Amy Carter on the South Lawn and posed for photographs with Grits, the nation’s First Dog.

Lander corresponded with former National Football League Commissioner Pete Rozelle for more than a year before the league finally agreed to sponsor a halftime exhibition at Super Bowl XII, held in New Orleans in 1978. Again, millions watched as television cameras followed Ashley Whippet.

“I always reach for the sky,” said Lander, who declined to reveal his age beyond saying he is a senior citizen. “The Lander method is: ‘What have you got to lose?’ I’m not, by nature, a very pushy person or an extrovert. But I’m very persevering.”

This summer, Lander invited Vice President Al Gore to fling the ceremonial first Frisbee at the world championships, only to receive a polite refusal when Gore injured an Achilles tendon.

“Without Irv, there would be no (canine Frisbee). It’s as simple as that,” said Peter Bloeme, the 1984 world champion, who now serves as an organizer and judge. “Frisbee dogs was not his idea, but he took it and came up with the concept of competition and presented it in an organized manner that would attract a sponsor.”

Such publicity was Lander’s long suit even before he met Stein. For years, Lander had served as a consultant to toy manufacturers, organizing and promoting contests involving everything from Hula-Hoops to yo-yos. As a consultant to Wham-O, Lander served as executive director of the International Frisbee Assn., which sanctioned competition between people but had never considered canines--until Stein and his dog did their thing.

Within a year, Lander had secured sponsorship from major pet food companies and, with Stein, developed the sport’s rules and staged its first competition: the Ashley Whippet Invitational. Ashley Whippet went on to win three world championships before dying in 1985, at age 13.

“I wanted it to become a national event and I wanted it to be respected,” Lander said. “I always had the confidence I could pull this thing off. But it’s a far cry now from what it was when we started.”

Indeed, the game of fling-and-fetch has become more than a contest in which daring young dogs “fly through the air with the greatest of fleas,” as Lander likes to say.

Cocky owners and their prize pooches have claimed the spotlight during NFL and NBA intermissions, late-night talk shows, even light-beer television commercials. Ashley Whippet’s demise fetched an outpouring of tribute from print and broadcast media across the country. Sports Illustrated eulogized the first Frisbee dog as an American sports legend, “both a Naismith (basketball’s inventor) and a (Babe) Ruth.”

A bevy of books and instructional videocassettes was released by Frisbee-dog competitors, espousing the fundamentals of training. Almost overnight, dog owners across the nation began to shun the stick in favor of the Frisbee.

Stein is credited with pioneering the rudimentary training technique of using a Frisbee for Fido’s food dish. Owners who followed suit discovered their dogs quickly developed an affection for the disc.

“I was just a guy who started throwing his dog a Frisbee in the park for exercise,” said Stein, who lives in Cleveland and remains a consultant to Lander. “Now, the advancement of the sport has really taken off. They’re coming up with routines you wouldn’t believe.”

At all levels, canine Frisbee competition is divided into two rounds. In Mini-Distance, points are awarded for basic throws and catches, with a premium for mid-air catches and grabs at a distance of 20 to 30 yards from the thrower. In Free Flight, contestants are judged on showmanship, agility and degree of difficulty in routines that are choreographed to music.

An emphasis is placed on keeping competition friendly--hence the modest monetary prize awarded to the world champion. Lander, a dog lover who served eight years as vice president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, envisioned not only a new sport but an incentive for strengthening the bond between owner and pet.

These days, Lander leaves the contest judging to others. While he used to spend as much as six months a year roving the country on promotional tours, he attended only three of seven regional finals this year.

Still, Lander is ever watchful for the opportunity to capitalize. He spent the summer trying unsuccessfully to arrange a commemorative performance at Dodger Stadium involving Stein and a descendant of Ashley Whippet.

Because the onset of the baseball strike benched Lander’s plans to try other stadiums, Lander has shifted his focus toward an attempt to break the world distance record for a Frisbee throw-and-catch. The record, once held by Ashley Whippet, stands at 111 yards.

Lander plans to schedule the stunt at a Valley-area park within the next month, with Wham-O officials and--he hopes--media representatives as witnesses. He himself owns the hound whose skills will be tested that day: Cheyenne Ashley Whippet, grand-dog of the late, great one. “He can run fast and leap high,” Lander said. “He’s a lot like Ashley.”