What is Flyball?

Flyball is a sport for purebred and mixed breed dogs. There are currently two flyball associations NAFA (North American Flyball Association) and U-FLI (United Flyball League International).

Flyball racing is a fast and exciting sport for the spectators and the dog/handler teams. Each team has a minimum of four dogs and four handlers (and may have one or two alternates), and a box loader, as well as a ball shagger.

The jump heights are determined by the shortest dog on the team so, needless to say, all teams love the little dogs, as it can make their team much faster by jumping lower jumps! The flyball boxes are spring loaded so that when it is triggered by the dog's step, it will throw a ball toward the dog. The balls may be tennis balls, squash balls, racket balls or other approved balls.

The races can be run in different formats. The most common are: 3 out of 3; 3 out of 5; or 5 out of 5 heats. The team with the most wins and/or the best times win.

Electronic starting lights or a whistle signals the start of each race. The first dog from each team is released to go down its own lane of four jumps, where he steps on the flyball box, catches the ball, and returns over the same four jumps to its owner. As the nose of the first dog crosses the finish line, he should be passing the nose of the second dog, and so on through the end of the team. The first team to have all four dogs run without errors wins the heat. A few errors can include: a dog crossing the start/finish line before the dog ahead of him crosses; goes around a jump; drops the ball; passes a team mate too early; triggers the box with his nose instead of his foot; or the handler steps or jumps over the start/finish line.

All dogs racing will receive points toward their titles, as well as team can earn points toward their tournament standings by how many races won.

When a team enters a tournament, they must submit a seed time which is usually an average time that the team can complete the heat. The teams then will be placed in divisions according to their submitted times. This makes racing fun for all dogs and handlers. Some of the fastest teams can run their heat in under 16 seconds!

The NAFA points can be earned by teams running in or under the following times: