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What is flyball?Drag racing for dogs! Flyball is a relay race between two teams of four dogs. Each dog on the team must jump over four jumps, retrieve a ball by triggering the box and then return over the jumps and past the start/finish line.
In order for a team to complete a race, each dog must jump the 4 jumps up to the flyball box, trigger the flyball box and bring the ball back over all 4 jumps and through the start gate. If the dog drops the ball at any time while completing the four jumps back, it must pick the ball up, and complete the remaining jumps. If the dog travels back over the start line without completing the run successfully, it needs to run again. The tip of the dog’s nose must pass through the start gates before the tip of the next dog’s nose passes the start. An early pass means the team has failed to run cleanly, even if that dog completes the rest of the flyball run successfully. Teams that “false start” (have the start dog’s nose pass through the starting gates before the starting lights have gone green) have another opportunity to run cleanly, but each team is only allowed one false start per heat or they have to re-run the start dog behind the 4th dog. The sport was developed in the 1970s and received lots of publicity when it appeared on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. The first formal competition was held in 1981, with the North American Flyball Association being founded a few years later in 1984. Flyball first appeared in Australia in 1982, though the first competition wasn't held here until 1996. |
Quick Facts
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Training level required: ☆☆☆☆ (difficult)
Training type: flyball club Equipment cost: $$$ (expensive) |
Overseeing body: Australian Flyball Association
Minimum age for competition: 18 months Breed restrictions: None! Open to all breeds |
What equipment do I need?Flyball doesn't take a lot of equipment to train or compete in the sport when compared to other active dog sports like agility, but to really train the sport outside of club training, you will need a flyball box, which can be quite expensive to buy, as well as 4 flyball jumps and something to use as a start gate. Often DIY solutions include purpose made turning boards, or handlers will teach a dog to do a wall turn, which only requires a solid wall.
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Age appropriate exercise
Flyball is a high impact sport. We would be remiss if we didn't include a warning to pet parents about age appropriate exercise and how it applies to the sport. While the minimum competition age for flyball is 12 months old, we recommend not using this as a guideline for when your puppy will be competing. There are plenty of great foundation exercises you can do to help your puppy's later flyball training, however we only recommend adding the high impact parts of flyball training (flyball box work, jumping, tug work etc) after the age of 18 months. This will help protect your puppy's growing joints, and help to ensure that they have a long career in the sport. We recommend consulting with your vet before starting training to make sure that your puppy's growth plates have closed, and that they are well-muscled, fit and healthy.
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How much training is needed?Put simply, it depends on the dog! Competing in flyball requires the dog to master a lot of different behaviours and be able to work in a high energy environment with many more distractions than dogs would have in other sports.
The flyball box turn (which we call a swimmer's turn) is incredibly important to get right - it helps protect a dog's joints from the impact of the turn and sets them up to complete their run successfully. Thankfully, flyball is a modern sport so the training methods are continually evolving. Trainers break down each of the behaviours (like the swimmer's turn) into little training exercises so help dogs learn at their own pace. Each dog learns differently but one of the joys of flyball being a team sport, is that trainers are exposed to many different kinds of dogs, so over time, they learn different ways to teach the same thing and can tailor training programs to the dog. A lot of the training once the dog is able to do a full run, is teaching the dog to work through distractions. Flyball dogs have to be trained to run full speed past another dog in a small space, and have that dog do the same to them, and handle having another dog in the other lane. There are also handlers yelling and waving tugs around, stewards on chairs close to the lanes, often the public is watching and may be leaning over fences or eating, the flyball lights make different beeping noises, the box triggers and moves when they hit it and often, flyball competitions are held at agricultural shows, like Canberra Royal Show so, depending on the placement of the ring, there may be other distractions like food stalls, rides nearby or balloons popping and for this reason, flyball dogs need to become bombproof before they have the chance to compete. Dogs generally take between 6 months to a year to teach, depending on the amount and quality of the training they're given but even dogs that have been running for years train to maintain a high quality performance. |
Titles
The points and title system in flyball are simple - each dog on the team must run clean for the dogs to receive one title point each. They receive an additional point if they also win the heat. In order for a team to run clean, each dog must jump the 4 jumps up to the Flyball box, trigger the flyball box and bring the ball back over all 4 jumps and through the start gate. If the dog drops the ball at any time while completing the four jumps back, it must pick the ball up, and complete the remaining jumps. If the dog travels back over the start line without completing the run successfully, none of the dogs on the team will receive any title points. The tip of the dog’s nose must pass through the start gates before the tip of the next dog’s nose passes the start. An early pass means the team has failed to run cleanly, even if that dog completes the rest of the flyball run successfully. Teams which “false start” in normal racing (have the start dog’s nose pass through the starting gates before the starting lights have gone green) have another opportunity to run cleanly, but each team is only allowed one false start per heat or they are not considered to have run cleanly as the start dog must re-run behind the 4th dog. If the race is handicapped, the
Only the highest title the dog has achieved is included in their registered name - if dog gains their FD and FDX titles, only the FDX title will appear on their name. The titles, in order are:
Only the highest title the dog has achieved is included in their registered name - if dog gains their FD and FDX titles, only the FDX title will appear on their name. The titles, in order are:
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