What is flyball?

Flyball is a team relay race for dogs, governed by the North American Flyball Association (NAFA). 2 teams of 4 dogs race against each other. The race course consists of 4 jumps spaced 10 feet apart, with a start line 6 feet in front of the first jump and a flyball box 15 feet from the last jump. The flyball box holds a tennis ball which ejects when the dog hits the pedal on the front of the box. The jumps are set at 4 inches lower than the shortest dog on the team, with the highest possible jumps being 16 inches and the lowest being 8 inches. No suprise that fast little dogs are in demand on any flyball team!

Starting lights similar to those used in dragracing begin the heat - no dog may cross the line until the start light goes on. The object of the sport is for each dog to go over the four hurdles as fast as posssible and at the far end, they grab a tennis ball from a spring-loaded box. Banking off the box to reverse direction, they race back to the start line, where, nose to nose, they pass their canine teammate rocketing down the course. If a dog or handler makes an error (such as dropping a ball, going around a jump, or passing too early), that dog must re-run, and usually the team loses the heat. Each of the four dogs takes a turn running the course and when all of the dogs have passed the finished line with no errors the team has finished the heat. The team with the fastest time wins. At tournaments, flyball teams are sorted into divisions according to expected speed, and teams only race others in their own division, so no matter how fast or slow a team is, the comptition is keen. A typical tournament lasts an entire weekend and the dogs/handlers race about 40 heats over a period of two days.

What is Flyball?