J.D. Platt’s K9 Kings turns shelter dogs into frisbee stars

Published 2:00 pm Thursday, July 31, 2025

J.D. Platt said he found his passion for training and performing with frisbee dogs by being “in the right place at the right time.” A former professional snowboarder in the 1980s and 1990s, Platt found himself hitchhiking from Mt. Bachelor back to Bend on a snowy day in 1996 when he was picked up by a man who had performed at NFL halftime shows, throwing frisbees with his dog.

As a recently retired professional snowboarder, Platt was looking for a career change, and after hearing the driver talk about his experience with training dogs, he said he was instantly curious.

“It seemed to be the perfect combination of entertaining and athleticism,” Platt said. “Throughout my life, I had always taught my dog to do things, like ‘sit’ and ‘lie down’ or pulling me on my skateboard around Bend.”

The driver Platt hitched a ride with became his mentor for more than two years as he began training dogs and competing at regional and national frisbee dog competitions. In between competitions, Platt said he would pick up odd jobs and do small, local performances to work towards starting his own business with his dogs.

“During that process, I started making a lot of phone calls asking people who actually made a living doing this what it entails,” Platt said. “I found that it seemed lucrative and aligned with my passions, so I slowly started getting more dogs and eventually decided to create my own business.”

J.D. Platt, from left standing in black, watches as his dog Jingle Bell gets airborne to catch a disc during a K9 Kings Flying Dog Show at the Deschutes County Fair in Redmond Wednesday afternoon. (Andy Tullis/The Bulletin)

In 2004, Platt began performing with his frisbee dogs full time, and the K9 Kings Flying Dog Show was born as Platt and his dogs set out to Tennessee to perform for three months at Dolly Parton’s theme park, “Dollywood.”

Since then, Platt hasn’t looked back as he and his crew of eight rescue dogs and two puppies in training travel across the country in a bright yellow trailer performing high-flying tricks at local fairs, exhibitions, schools and sporting events.

Platt said the training process for his dogs is similar to traditional training routines used for family pets. When he adopts a new dog, Platt will evaluate them to see what skills they already have. Older dogs often already possess basic skills like jumping and retrieving, but may require additional training in introducing frisbees and handling crowds. Yet puppies can take almost two years of training to be ready for the stage, Platt said.

“You need patience, consistency, repetition and just a lot of hard work,” he said.

Most of the dogs Platt has trained were rescue dogs adopted from local animal shelters, including Street Dog Hero, Herd U Needed A Home and the Humane Society of Central Oregon. He has adopted several different breeds to join the K9 Kings crew, including Australian shepherds, blue heelers, terriers, Labrador mixes and more. While Platt works with a variety of different breeds, he said that herding breeds are often the most adept.

“They just love to work,” Platt said. “They’re athletic and their joints are made for doing all of these acrobatic maneuvers and skills… They just love it and they’re very passionate about it.”

When Platt isn’t training his dogs to do flips and frisbee tricks, he also operates JD Paddleboards, an inflatable paddleboard company that specializes in making dog-friendly boards. His boards are made with extra-durable materials to prevent wear-and-tear from dog scratches and feature a long deck that provides a non-slip surface for dogs to stand, leash handles and a retractable fin to prevent potential falls.

“My paddleboards feature the things that I saw lacking in the industry,” Platt said. “I wanted to change that, so I created my own company and boards.”

Platt hopes his show encourages people to support local shelters and understand the value of training and spending time with rescue dogs.

The crowd, from left, watches on as Zilo the dog jumps to catch a disc thrown by J.D. Platt, during the K9 Kings Flying Dog Show at the Deschutes County Fair in Redmond Wednesday afternoon. 7-30-25 Andy Tullis/The Bulletin

“The best thing for me is just inspiring people to work with their dogs and see that there is a lot of potential in shelters and rescue dogs,” Platt said. “I absolutely love putting smiles on people’s faces — that’s one of the joys in life, and seeing people enjoying the dogs and loving on them is great.”

In between performances, Platt’s 10 dogs live comfortably with him and his wife at their half-acre property in Bend. They enjoy playing, cuddling and just being happy dogs, he said. While Platt said he would love to have all 10 dogs in the house at once, the dog hair can become too much to bear.

“I just love having the dogs inside, but to have all 10 is a lot of dog hair,” Platt said. “We do kind of a rotation process and just share the love.”

The K9 Kings Flying Dog Show will feature performances daily at the Deschutes County Fair, at 2:30 p.m. and again at 6:30 p.m.