Flyball…Dogs racing over four hurdles to retrieve a tennis ball from a spring-loaded box, and racing back over the hurdles in a relay race that utilizes a start/finish timing device with an electronic eye. Sounds easy, right? Dogs are allowed to bark & pull. No sit-stay is necessary. You don’t have to memorize a 20-obstacle course. You can use food & toys in the ring. You can yell & scream all you want…the more, the better!!! So, what is so challenging about flyball and what do all those numbers mean? If you’d like to know more about this primal dog sport, read on!

FLYBALL BASICS
A Flyball race involves two teams of four dogs each, racing side-by-side over a 51 foot long course. One race consists of 3 to 5 “heats”, depending on the format of the tournament. In a heat, each dog must run in relay fashion down the lane of four jumps, trigger a flyball box to release a ball, retrieve the ball, and return over the jumps. The next dog is released to run the course but can't cross the start/finish line until the previous dog has reached the start/finish line. The first team to have all four dogs finish the course without error wins the heat.

Jump height is determined by the smallest dog on the team – this dog is referred to as the "height dog" and is measured at the withers. That number is then rounded down to the nearest inch and another 5" is subtracted to get the jump height. The minimum jump height is 7" and the maximum jump height is 14".

Electronic timing with infrared sensors is used in flyball tournaments to record times down to the 1/1000th of a second. When dogs pass each other in the relay, the ideal is to have the two dogs reach the electronic eye at nearly the same time. The first dog must cross the beam first, before the next dog breaks it. If a dog crosses the start/finish line before the previous dog does on his return, it is a fault and that dog must rerun in order to finish the race. Sometimes passes are intentionally kept wide if the passing dogs are inexperienced, or have training issues. Wide passes will make the team’s final time higher (slower), but a fault for an early pass will do so as well since a dog will have to rerun. Timing for the perfect pass is very difficult, and requires total consistency on the part of the dog and the handler.

The Start Dog is the first dog to run, and the handler releases the dog to begin the race by watching a series of lights similar to those used in drag racing. There are 3 yellow lights that count down to a green light, at which point the clock is started. The perfect start would be for the dog to cross the start line at the exact time the clock starts, which would show a start time of 0.000. If a dog crosses the start line too early, the heat is re-started. Two early starts on the same dog is a fault, and the race continues, but the start dog must rerun at the end. The handler for the start dog must determine the optimum place from where to release the dog. For example, a fast, medium-sized dog such as a Border Collie will benefit from starting 50-60’ back from the start line so he will be at full speed by the time he reaches the electronic eye.

FLYBALL COMPETITION
NAFA, the North American Flyball Association, is the primary flyball organization in North America and has over 16,000 dogs registered. NAFA tournaments are divided into “divisions” so that teams compete against other teams of equal abilities. All dogs including mixed breeds are eligible to compete and earn titles in NAFA sanctioned tournaments. Titles are earned via a point system based on the time it takes a dog's team to complete each heat.

Tournaments may offer from one to four different classes. The Regular class allows for any dogs to run on the team. The Multi class requires that the four dogs racing must be four different breeds. Only one may be a “mixed breed” dog.
Two other tournament classes do not count towards regional rankings, but still allow for dogs to earn points and play the game. They are Veterans, for dogs over 7 yrs old, and Open, a new class that allows dogs from different clubs to team up together.

When entering a tournament, the first thing the Team Captain must do is to determine a “seed time” for each team. A TEAM consists of 4 dogs plus 2 alternates. The “seed time” is an estimate of the team’s capabilities for completing a heat. This is usually anywhere from 16 seconds to 24 seconds. The captain must know the average time for each dog and consider if the passes between dogs are likely to be wide or tight.
Once the entries are all received for a tournament, the teams are then divided into Divisions. Division 1 will be for the fastest teams. For example, if 20 Regular teams are entered, they might be split into 4 divisions. The 5 teams with the fastest seed times would be in Regular Division 1, the next fastest five would be in Regular Division 2, and so on. The seed time of the fastest team in each division determines the ‘break-out’ time by adding 1 second to that seed time. If a team finishes a heat in a time that is faster than the break-out time, they automatically lose that heat and no points are awarded. A team that breaks out 3 times in a tournament is not eligible for any tournament placement. (In Division 1, there is no break-out time, the sky’s the limit!) So the seed time becomes very important for being placed in the appropriate division.

Individual dogs earn points towards titles based on the team’s racing time in each heat. Less than 24 seconds will earn each participating dog 25 points. Between 24 and 28 seconds is 5 points, and between 28 and 32 seconds is 1 point. A total of only 20 points is required for the Flyball Dog title, but that is just the beginning. The gaps between titles get increasingly longer, as it next goes to 100 points, then 500, 1000, 2500, 5000, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 and up in increments of 10,000 points.

TRAINING FOR FLYBALL
The most important part of the training process is teaching the dog how to safely and efficiently execute the retrieval of the ball from the spring-loaded box. Ideally the dog should perform a “swimmers turn” on the box, by starting to bend his body as he lands on the box, which triggers the release of the ball, at which point the dog should cup his mouth over the ball as it is released. With ball in mouth, he should then power off the box using his rear legs and launch back into the lane of hurdles. A good swimmers turn requires that all four feet of the dog are on the box. This method reduces the impact on the dog’s shoulders and also results in a faster and more efficient performance.

The other critical part is getting the dog to return with the ball as quickly as possible, without dropping it before crossing the start/finish line. Most handlers have the dogs race back to get a good game of tug as motivation and reward, with the dog not dropping the ball until they are grabbing the tug toy. Some dogs do better with a reward of treats, but either way, it’s all about motivation and reward and adrenaline!

In a word, Flyball really is one of the extreme dog sports…always noisy & chaotic, but also a rush for both handlers & dogs. It can be a great cross-training sport for agility dogs, particularly in the winter when agility trials are infrequent. It may not be for everyone, but for some of us, it’s an addiction! Dog + Ball + Running + Tugging = FUN!