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Flyball with your
Australian Cattle Dog

A Brief Intoduction to Flyball

By Martha Bentley

Flyball is a fast and exciting sport -- for the dogs, the handlers and the spectators. A flyball team consists of four dogs and their handlers, a boxloader and one or two alternate dogs and handlers. The sport is not limited to any one breed of dog; purebreed and mixed breeds may compete. In North America, the governing body is NAFA -- the North American Flyball Association. This sport is also run in Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Australia. Indeed, the Flyball List has had posts from South Africa.

In competition, two teams race side by side against each other. One dog from each team must go over four jumps, step on a flyball box pedal, catch a tennis ball which flies out of the box and return with the ball over all four jumps to the start/finish line where the next dog is waiting to run. If the dog fails to bring the ball back, misses a jump, or crosses the start/finish line before the preceding dog returns, the dog must run again at the end of the line. The first team to have all four dogs successfully complete their runs wins the heat

Answers to some of the more common questions are:

  • The jump height is between 8 and 16 inches. The height is based on the shoulder height of the smallest dog on the team.
  • The handler must stay behind the start/finish line and the "on-deck" dog cannot cross the line until any part of the preceding dog has crossed the line.
  • A racquetball or handball is sometimes used instead of a tennis ball for smaller dogs.

ACDs are wonderful for this sport for several reasons -- one of which is size. With the jumps spaced 10 feet apart, the 51 foot course, which is perfectly sized for border collies, is also spaced well for cattle dogs. Since many ACDs are under 20" at the shoulder, they are also capable of being height dogs for their teams. This is a wonderful sport for dogs which love to run and jump, fitting the ACD energy level beautifully. This sport can be played whether your dog is registered with AKC, CKC, UKC, or unregistered, as long as your dog is registered with NAFA. This is very much a team sport, and one cannot compete without a team.

Titles are earned based on a dogs lifetime point total based on the team running time in each heat in which the dog races. 1 point is earned when the total team time is between 28 and 32 seconds. 5 points are earned when the total team time is between 24 and 28 seconds. 25 points is earned when the team time is below 24 seconds.

NAFAtm Titles
FD - Flyball Dog (20 pts)
FDX - Flyball Dog Excellent (100 pts)
FDCH - Flyball Dog Champion (500 pts)
FM - Flyball Master (5,000 pts)
FMX - Flyball Master Excellent (10,000 pts)
FMCH - Flyball Master Champion (15,000 pts)
ONYX - Onyx Award (20,000 pts)
FMGCH - Flyball Master Grand Champion (30,000 pts)

As of 11/30/2002, there were 189 ACD's with flyball titles, including 3 with over 30,000 points (FGDCH).

Books about Flyball
Flyball Racing : The Dog Sport for Everyone
Lonnie Olson
Flyball Training---Start to Finish
Jacqueline Parkin
cover

Some Flyball Web Sites:

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