What is Flyball?  

Flyball is a fun fast paced dog sport, merging of obedience and agility-type skills. 
It is a timed relay race between two teams of dogs and handlers. There are four dogs per team. 
Each dog on the team is released by his handler, must go over four jumps in a row, trigger a Flyball box which ejects a tennis ball, grab the ball, and return over the four jumps carrying the ball. Then the next dog on the team can run. 
The jumps are 10 feet apart from each other. The first is 6 feet from the start line and the box is 15 feet from the last jump for a 51 foot overall length.
The Flyball box is a spring loaded box that shoots out a tennis ball when the front pedal is pushed by the dog. 
The first team to run each dog without error wins. The hurdles height is dependent on the smallest dog on the team. The shortest hurdle can be set at 7”, tallest 14”. Every team needs a little dog, commonly referred to as the “height dog”.
Flyball takes the obedience and agility-type skills a step further by teaching the dog to perform and make its own decisions while it is running at top speeds on the Flyball course. 
The Flyball dog must also learn to perform its tasks while there is another dog in an adjoining lane doing the same thing at the same time. 
This requires the ultimate in focus and concentration in the face of major distractions 

For more information go to:  http://www.flyball.org/aboutflyball.html

What is Flyball's History in North America?  www.showcase.netins.net/web/doublejj/Hist.html

What are the Flyball World Rankings? http://www.flyball.org.uk/wr/wrank.php

How does Flyball compare to Agility and Obedience?   It has been quoted that "Obedience is like a dinner at the White House, Agility is like a wine and cheese party, and Flyball is like a kegger". 


The following was provided by Alan Weiner of the Houston Flyball Association:
Ten Ways Flyball Helps With Obedience Training:
· Improves recall - encourages fast, enthusiastic recall
· Dogs learn to work with tremendous distractions - focus, attention and control greatly improves
· Great for conditioning - improves stamina
· Improves canine social skills/ability to work around other dogs
· Improves retrieving skills
· Improves jumping skills - jumping is more efficient, mechanically correct and the level of motivation and enthusiasm is raised. -  A lot of proofing is also done to prevent going around jumps
· Improves broad jumps - each heat in Flyball includes eight, 10 foot broad jumps
· Sits and down stays - flyball dogs are commonly put on stays while the team changes jump heights amidst great distractions
· Improves dog’s motivation for training and working - have your dog ask a flyball dog, they enjoy working!
· Fast, straight utility go-outs can be taught using flyball patterning