Flyball is new to the Dog World and has been gaining popularity over the last 10 years.  It is a group event with 4 dogs per team in which a dog must jump over 4 hurdles,

grab the ball out of the box, this means that the dog must touch the box, which activates it and spits the ball out of the holes, seen near Roos mouth in this picture,

Roo must then keep the ball in her mouth, jump back over the four hurdles and return to Mom. 

All this while the team you are competing against are running in the jumps next to you.  This is done as a relay race with each dog running after the dog has returned down the line of jumps.  The team who has all their dogs return first is the winner of the round.  Each competition has 3 rounds per heat with the best 2 of 3 winning the heat.  This will continue until only one team remains.

The dogs are very excited to compete in this sport and if you have a very ball orientated dog, this is something you really want to check out.

Carol Says - "Roo had to retire from flyball aged 3½ years old because she developed a degeneration of the spine.  The specialist said her spine was in a dreadful condition and didn't hold out much hope on a long future, but she is eleven years old now, a bit stiff but still manages her walks.  Her retirement came at a bad time because a group of us broke off from the main Jets team and set our own little one up called the Hawks, we had two borders collies, a springer spaniel and Roo and on our very first competition we went out and won every race. When Roo had to retire the Hawks team just crumbled, it was a very sad day."

Roo died 08/10/08 aged 13yrs 7mths old.

She will be greatly missed by all who knew her.
 

If you have any questions regarding this sport, feel free to contact the Webmaster and he'll place you in contact with more knowledgeable competitors in this sport!