A little bit
about the sport of Flyball

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
And watch here the LIRR team going to the first Can Am Tourney
in October 2009
in Indianapolis, Indiana - we had a
great time seeing teams from all over the country
Alaska, Canada and the US
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 l
ine, 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.
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
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.