Disc golfers’ best friend

Rusty Zimmerman and his dog love to play fetch with frisbees.

But  Zimmerman isn’t usually the one throwing them.

Ellie, a 3-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, has taken it upon herself to find wayward discs in the weeds and water at area parks, and she has become so good at it that Zimmerman made a Facebook page for her.

Last week, Ellie the disc hunter eclipsed the 350 mark, and the leisure activity has become somewhat lucrative.

Discs used in disc golfing cost in the $10 to $30 range, and many golfers write their phone numbers on them in hopes of returns if they get lost.

Zimmerman and Ellie live next door to Stoney Creek Park in Fredonia, home to one of the toughest disc golf courses in the area.

Zimmerman often gets texts from people seeking Ellie’s services. He sells some of the discs back to the golfers and gives others away.

“People will tip her either with treats or donations I put toward treats,” Zimmerman said. “She finds so many she easily pays for her own food.”

Ellie’s process has become a regular routine. Zimmerman often runs her downwind of a search area so she picks up the smell of plastic. He can tell where people had searched for discs from the trampled weeds.

“Hunt it up! Fetch it up!” Zimmerman will say.

Ellie bounds into the weeds, and sounds of rustling and a light jingling of a bell follow. Zimmerman put a bell on her collar so he can tell where she is.

“Her nickname’s Elle bell,” he said.

Ellie is a typical euphoric and easygoing lab, but a successful hunt doesn’t live up to her breed’s name. Ellie stands on the discs she finds.

“She doesn’t retrieve, really,” Zimmerman said.

He is always nearby and celebrates her good deed — “There it is. Good job, good job,” he says — but Ellie doesn’t care about the attagirl.

“She doesn’t want the praise. She just wants the dang frisbee,” Zimmerman said.

From there, Zimmerman becomes the retriever.

“If I didn’t take them, she’d run around forever,” he said.

The two have gotten to know disc golfers. Last week, they bumped into Chris Hannert of Saukville at the Tendick Park course in the Town of Saukville. He lost four discs this season; two have been returned.

“It’s amazing. You guys will be out here for two hours and come back with a dozen discs,” Hannert said.

Depending on how hot it is, Zimmerman and Ellie will spend 90 minutes to two hours enjoying nature and looking for discs. But Ellie, smiling with her tongue dangling out the side of her mouth, doesn’t limit herself to one target.

“She is all about the gophers,” Zimmerman said, adding rabbits are another favorite.

She has caught neither.

When she’s in water, fish are her game. She has the same luck there.

“She loves swimming and fishing. She doesn’t catch anything. She tries and tries and tries,” Zimmerman said.

She has found discs in the water or in swamps. “She sees the shape and goes after them,” Zimmerman said.

For others, it’s the smell that draws her.“She found one on No. 17 that a guy lost five years ago,” Zimmerman said.

Ellie knows the courses so well that when Zimmerman tells her to “Go get a drink” at Tendick Park, she runs off and comes back a minute later with the bottom of her legs stained brown from mud.

The hobby started by accident during spring 2025. Ellie’s favorite toy is a dog frisbee, and “it morphed into her finding a disc one day,” Zimmerman said. “It was probably her 10th disc when this became a thing.”

Despite many hours spent on disc golf courses, Zimmerman has only played the game twice. He likes to hunt instead, and Ellie is a good fit for finding pheasants.

Zimmerman got Ellie at 8 weeks old from a friend of a friend on a farm in Minnesota.

He wanted a docile dog for bird hunting, Zimmerman said, and “she was pretty mellow.”

Zimmerman’s family had labs during his upbringing in Jackson. He worked as an engineer for six years and now attends grad school for mental health counseling.

He balances school while working on a farm in Lomira. Ellie has no interest in returning to her roots.

“She doesn’t like cows,” he said.

Ellie is as friendly as she is task oriented. “Affectionate, that’s the best word,” Zimmerman said of her best quality.

To follow Ellie’s hunting adventures, visit her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590692667511.