Flyball
Let us tell you about Flyball... and Long Island Road Rage...
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all photos on this page by Swift-Bennett Photography
Long Island Road Rage is a new flyball team, we
just started racing in June of 2006. The pictures on this page are of some
of the members of the team, Kane the Kelpie, Mysti the mix, Riki the Papillon,
Keeper the Sheltie, Becky the GSD and Ella the Aussie. We train at Doggie U and there is a class for
beginner flyball dogs on Thursday night at 7pm. See
schedule page for info on
the class it is a drop in class, come when you can!
Watch a video on YouTube of LIRR doing flyball in March 2007
Flyball is a team sport for dogs that was invented in California in the late 70's. Herbert Wagner first showed it on the Johnny Carson Show to millions of Americans. Soon afterwards dog trainers and dog clubs were making and using Flyball Boxes. In the early 80's the sport became so popular that the North American Flyball Association (NAFA) was formed and they are the worldwide authority for Flyball.
Flyball is a relay race with 4
dogs on a team. The course consists of a starting line, 4 hurdles spaced 10 feet
apart and a box. The first hurdle is 6 feet from the start line and the box is
15 feet from the last hurdle for a 51 foot overall length. The dogs jump the
hurdles and steps on a spring l
oared
box that shoots out a tennis ball. The dog catches the tennis ball and then runs
back over the 4 hurdles. When the dog crosses the starting line the next dog
goes. The first team to have all 4 dogs run without errors wins the heat.
Tournaments are usually organized in either a double elimination or round robin
format. Double elimination is usually best of 3 or best of 5. Round robin is
usually best 3 out of 5 and the first team to win 3 heats receives 1 point
towards their standing in the tournament.
The hurdles' height are dependent on the height of the dogs in the team -- 4" below the shoulder height of the shortest dog. 7" is the minimum height and 14" is the maximum height.
The fastest time is 15.43 seconds
by SpringLoaded from Michigan, USA..
Click here to go to the NAFA website
For even more info on Flyball see the Flyball dogs page