Ogby, was invented when some bright dog thought. “What can we do with our old catapults? Now all the cats are gone, we don’t need them any more” At the time there were two catapults, one at each end of a long field. The idea for a game involving sticks came to her when she saw the Sprogs all jump up in the air and try to grab a falling stick that a bird had dropped. First they tried to get it as it was falling. Then they tried to wrestle it from one another when it was on the ground. Then who ever got it ran away with it, chased by all the other dogs.

So the rules developed as follows - there are two teams and the one that wins the toss gets to go first. Here’s the first problem. To win the toss a stick is catapulted into the air. The idea is each captain runs under the stick shouting heads or tails. If the stick hits him on the head – it’s heads. If it hits him on the tail – it’s tails. If it misses or lands in the middle you do it again. The best of three wins. Simple enough? Not when dogs are involved.

Generally, as soon as the captain runs under the stick , all the other dogs run too, and before the stick has chance to land on the captain, all of them jump up. One of the tangle catches the stick and runs off with it chased by all the others. Everyone ends up at the side of the field, wrestling and wrangling, barking, snarling.

However when they get as far as deciding who has won the toss, they load the catapult with the stick and try to fire it as far down the field as possible. Then both teams chase after the stick and have to catch it and run back to the other end and return it to the catapult and fire it again.

The idea is that the dogs should pass the stick to one another while the other team has to try to get the stick off them. In practice nobody follows the rules, once the stick is airborne it is every dog for himself and everyone forgets which side they are on. They all just want to get the stick. Consequently there are very few goals scored and the game usually consists of a great heap of swirling tugging growling dogs all trying to get the stick for themselves. If by accident, a dog wins the stick and then runs in the right direction and then ends up at the right end of the field and sits down near the catapult - a goal is scored. Usually the unsuspecting hound doesn’t know it has scored. More often than not they run the wrong way and score a goal for the opposition. Often a dog will not let go of the stick so they launch dog and stick down the field. The dog usually lets go when it thumps to the ground.