Flyball

****** News Flash for LIRR Flyball team- we now have the first two Flyball Master Excellent dogs from Long Island on our team. The FMX title requires the dogs to get 10,000 points in races. Zoey who hails from Brooklyn NY and Kane who hails from Queens NY are the owners of these lofty titles. We are so proud of them!!!!! *******

Click on this link to go to the other site for the Long Island Road Rage team, meet the dogs, learn more about flyball and see our tourney schedule.

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!

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 loared 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.

Let us tell you about Flyball... and Long Island Road Rage...