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Introduction to Flyball Judith E. Lascola Do you have a fun-loving Great Dane who loves tennis balls? Then flyball might be the sport for you! Flyball, America’s fastest growing dog sport, was invented in California in the late 1970’s. Many saw it for the first time on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show with Herbert Wagner’s dogs, after which it became increasingly popular. The North American Flyball Association (NAFA), founded in 1985 by Mike Randall, is the governing body for flyball worldwide. Since its inception, over 300 teams and 7000 dogs have registered, including 23 Great Danes of whom 17 have titles. Flyball is fast-paced, loud, and fun for humans and dogs alike. Flyball is a relay race with four dogs and two alternates on a team who jump over four hurdles, trigger a mechanical flyball box, and catch and return with a tennis ball over the same four hurdles. The object is to run your four dogs in the shortest time, which includes time taken for a “pass” which is the time gap between dogs crossing the start/finish line. The jumps are 10 feet apart, the flyball box is 15 feet from the last jump, and the start/finish line is six feet in front of the first jump. Jump heights are calculated by subtracting four inches from the height at the withers of the shortest dog on the team. The minimum jump height is eight inches and the maximum is sixteen. There is typically a staging area of at least 50 feet behind the start finish line to line up the dogs and give them enough room to get a running start. Starts, finishes and passes are judged by an Electronic Judging System (EJS) which has drag racing style “ready, set, go” lights and infrared timing sensors. Perfect starts occur when a dog is released far from the flyball lane and hits the start line at full speed just as the “go” light turns green. Perfect passes happen when the returning dog and the next dog reach the start/finish line at the same time, nose-to-nose. Since this is a team sport, not only does your dog have to be fast and accurate, but so do the rest of the dogs on your team. It isn’t all up to the dogs either, since the handlers need to time the release of their dog to coincide with the return of the previous dog. Early passes, dropped balls, and missed jumps are errors which are penalized by a rerun of the dog which costs the team time and usually the race. It isn’t always the fastest team who wins, but often the most accurate team takes home the ribbons or trophies. History of Flyball Danes The first Great Dane to earn a flyball title was Lissa Thomas Cortenbach’s dog, Sable, in 1991. Some of the other early Great Dane flyballers include two members of HDTC Flyball (Houston, Texas), Cathy Mitchell with her dogs Sere and Frankie and Georgia Thomas with Christie, Maddi and Jewelee; who all earned titles in the 1992-1996 time period. Currently, the highest title earned by a Great Dane is Flyball Dog Champion (FDCh) and Sere earned the first FDCh for the breed in 1994. Since then, seven other Danes have received this title. Frankie is unofficially recognized as the largest dog to have played the sport, weighing in at 189 pounds. HDTC Flyball team sported a total of six titled flyball Great Danes including Cheryl and Bill Schock’s GDF Schock’s Georgie Girl before disbanding. This team ran an all Great Dane team in the days of the older catapult-style flyball box and earned points on their dogs the hard way. Since then, flyball boxes have become more efficient and teams are running with faster times and earning many more points per tournament. Marta Brock of Washington state put flyball titles on her dogs, Bumper (Can CH Paquestone's U Rolling Thunder NA NAJ CDX TD FD) and Putter (Can/Intl CH Daynkin Xactly Rollin Thunder OA NAJ CD FDX) in the mid to late 1990’s. Putter’s daughter, Natty (Intl CH Paquestone's N'Zaniri Rollin Thundr NA) is currently in training. Especially noteworthy is Beth Gutteridge’s Nico (Tova’s Great White Ghost FDX), who ran with All Dogs Flyball in New Hampshire. He is a deaf white Great Dane and was handled on hand signals only. He came out of retirement briefly this year to earn his second flyball title for which he needed only nine points to finish. Although a Great Dane in flyball is always a crowd pleaser, he was especially admired. Points, Titles and Team Placements Titles in flyball come quickly since the low point thresholds for titles from when team times were slower are still in effect. A Flyball Dog (FD) title takes 20 points, followed by Flyball Dog Excellent (FDX) at 100 points, Flyball Dog Champion (FDCh) at 500 points and Flyball Master (FM) at 5000 points. Titles are available at increasing point totals, and the top title is Flyball Grand Champion (FGDCh) at 30,000 points. Points are earned by team time with 1 point awarded for a run less than 32 seconds, five points for less than 28 seconds and 25 points for runs under 24 seconds. All four dogs on the team are awarded the points from the run. At a tournament, your team is competing for event placement in its division, regional standings, and overall fastest time, while earning points and titles for individual dogs. So even if your team doesn’t place at the tournament, you still go home with points towards titles--a nice consolation prize. Team Seeding Flyball is a dog sport for all dogs and tournaments are seeded with teams running against teams of the same ability. So even if you don’t own a sub-four second Border Collie, your dog can still be a valuable teammate and you can be part of the fun. Divisions are divided by times, and teams submit a seed time with their entry for placement. To insure accurate placements, teams who run significantly under their seed time are disqualified. There are two categories of divisions: Regular and Multi-breed. Teams running in regular can include any dog breeds including mixed breeds, in any combination. Multi-breed teams must consist of four distinct breeds including a mixed breed category. The top Regular teams are typically comprised of three Border Collies and one Jack Russell Terrier, whose short stature lowers the jump heights for the whole team. Multi-breed teams can only have one Border Collie at most, providing a level playing field for teams that include less competitive breeds. But that doesn’t mean a Great Dane is a token giant breed on a team. Any fast and accurate dog is a valuable member. Great Danes can run in less than 6 seconds, and several run in under 5 seconds which is plenty fast for an exciting and competitive team Flyball Culture Unlike other dog competitions, flyball is truly a team sport and competitiveness and camaraderie are not mutually exclusive. It is common for members of other teams to help out opponents who are short-handed. Children are involved as handlers and “ball shaggers”, the people who collect the team’s dropped tennis balls. At tournaments, a group dinner is often offered and gives teams the opportunity to share stories, training techniques, and friendly jibes. The judges are almost always competitors in the same tournament, which rarely causes a problem. Getting Started with Your Dane You’re convinced that flyball is the dog sport for you, so how do you get started? First, try to find a team in your area. Consult the team listings on the NAFA website (www.flyball.org) and contact the team captain. Teams are also sorted by state on Flyballdogs.com (www.flyballdogs.com). Most teams offer ongoing training or know who is offering beginner flyball classes in your area. My team, Sirius Competition, offers a flyball class annually after which students are invited to team practices and go to tournaments. Second, apply for your CRN, your registry number with NAFA. At the time of registry, indicate the team with which you are affiliated. You must be on a team to compete. Go to a tournament! Even if your dog isn’t ready, you can still practice with the team during warm-ups and give him and yourself valuable tournament experience. What if there isn’t a team in your area? Start one. Get in touch with the nearest team and get some pointers, buy training videos and train your dog. Mike Randall has an online training guide, On Your Mark on the Flyballdogs.com site under training and Lonnie Olson wrote a popular book, Flyball Racing. Other resources are available through I-Flyball (www.i-flyball.com) or Dogwise (www.dogwise.com) The minimum equipment you’ll need is jumps, a training ramp (aka “shoot”) and a traffic cone. Before your dog learns to use the flyball box, you must teach her a “swimmer’s turn” so that she will maintain her momentum when turning as well as lessen the impact on her shoulders. Once you have a group of dogs on your team, consider investing the $400 for a competition flyball box. One bit of advice: absolutely teach your Great Dane the swimmer’s turn. Many trainers will omit this exercise with a Great Dane because they feel the dog is too big to ever get more than one or two paws on the box, however my Dane and others routinely put at least three paws on the box and it greatly decreases their time by one second or more. Equipment Your dog will need a harness and/or a flyball collar, which is a padded martingale style collar with a stiff handle. Dogs get very excited about flyball and the harness is necessary to restrain your flyball dog without putting pressure on his throat. It is also useful for catching your dog at the end of a run and giving him something to brace against for a faster start. I have found that the Surefit® Harness by Premier is easier to use than other harness, since one doesn’t put it on by pulling a leg through it. Flyball collars and harnesses are also available through Lupine (www.lupine.com). Many times you can find vendors, often also competitors, at flyball tournaments. Otherwise, flyball boxes are available online from various vendors and free plans for jumps and the “shoot” are available from Willoughby Workshop (http://www.flyballequip.com/plans.htm). The “shoot” is a necessary piece of training equipment, so make it first before buying a box. Talk with other competitors before purchasing a box to find out the pros and cons of the various commercially available boxes. Once you have a few pieces of equipment, you’re ready to start! Happy flyballing! About the Author Judith Lascola is working towards her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Medical College of Georgia, is an Association of Pet Dog Trainers professional member, and has taught obedience and agility for several organizations over the years. She and her Great Dane, Greta, compete in flyball with Sirius Competition and they live with her husband Rob and a miniature dachshund Hansel in North Augusta, SC. |
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