Everything you ever wanted to know
about flyball!
Flyball is the fastest growing dog sport in the UK; it is very addictive and dogs love it! Not only played here, but popular throughout the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and many other European countries. Competitions take place every weekend throughout the summer, up and down the country, and slightly less often throughout the winter season.
Flyball involves 2 teams of 4 dogs and handlers, racing against each other in separate lanes. Each dog on the team must jump 4 hurdles and retrieve a tennis ball from a spring-loaded device called the "box", and return back over the hurdles again. The dogs must pass with each other as close as possible on the start line, this is referred to as a "changeover", "cross" or "pass". The winning team is the first one to get all four dogs over the course and back again with no faults or early changeovers. There are five types of competition, see below.
For the long term health of the dogs, they must be 18 months old before they can compete in open flyball tournaments, and many are still racing aged 10 and over. Many clubs will allow dogs to start training from 10 months onward, or let younger dogs attend for socialisation and to soak up the atmosphere.
Although border collies are very popular in the sport, any dog can compete in flyball as long as they are fit enough. Dogs under 18 inches at the withers are called 'height dogs' and lower the jumps for the team they are racing with. Speed isn't necessarily everything, as teams are grouped into different divisions depending on times they have set together in the past.
A Brief History
Flyball began in the United States in the 1970's. In the UK, flyball is governed by the British Flyball Association, which was formed in 1994.
The sport has progressed hugely since then, now with more teams and a wider range of breeds than ever. All timing is now electronic, accurate to the nearest 1/100th of a second. A system of lights is used, both to start the race and to indicate if a dog has faults. Slightly different styles of boxes have become popular, many now similar to those used in the USA.
Team times have become faster on the whole throughout the world, the British record was held by High Flyers who hit the fastest ever British time of 16.66 seconds in September 2009. Due to the run not being filmed they were unable to be officially the British record holders but were the fastest BFA team until July 2015 when Mansfield Marnicks set a new British record of 15.79 seconds. Marnicks were then overtaken by WOW Wonderdogs in October 2015 with a time of 15.74. In October 2017 WOW beat their own time to create a new British and European record with a time of 15.05 seconds at the BFA Indoor Championships. The current record holders are Tails We Win with a time of 14.45.
The WORLD RECORD is an amazing 14.16 seconds, set in 2023 by Roadrunners, a Belgium team, European champions and Crufts champions.
The largest event in the BFA calendar is the British Flyball Outdoor Championships, held every August and popularly known among flyballers as "the champs". This event has no upper limit on entries, and sees nearly every team in the country take part over 3 days and in 2017 had grown so popular there were 5 arenas and almost 300 teams entered. Teams battle it out to win their respective divisions and Peak Performers were thrilled to win their division in 2017. The event of the weekend is when everyone gathers to watch division 1, to see who will get the coveted title of "British Flyball Champions" for that year. FOCUS are the current BFA Outdoor Champions with a time of 14.71 seconds.
Types of competition
There are five primary types of flyball competition.
1. Intermediate and Foundation tournaments are not sanctioned by the BFA, but are instead as the names suggest, ways for new dogs and handlers to be introduced to a competition setting. Dogs must be at least 12 months old, and the ring is set up the same as for an Open tournament, however wings can be used at the side of, or between jumps to help guide the dogs. Dogs don't have to trigger the box but must take the ball from it and boxloaders can give the dogs plenty of encouragement. Younger dogs benefit from lower jumps irrespective of their own height.
2. Open or Sanctioned tournaments are the main competitions. Any team of up to 6 dogs and handlers can enter, but only 4 dogs run at one time. Races are best of 5, and typically dogs will have 5 or 6 races in one day. The team's fastest time of the day is recorded and added to the Seedings list (find this on the BFA website). The seeding list is used to form divisions for tournaments to ensure fair and close racing.
When a team races in a BFA sanctioned flyball tournament each dog racing with that team can earn points towards a flyball title. Each of the 4 dogs contributing to a clean run (a run without any faults) will be awarded 20 dog points. 5 points will be awarded for each leg which is won.
These points then accumulate, and the dogs earn titles when they reach certain amounts of points. For these awards they are given certificates, or for milestone awards, they get glassware.
The awards are as follows:• BFA will award a certificate of achievement to any dog receiving 1000 points.
• BFA will award a certificate of achievement to any dog receiving 5000 points.
• BFA will award a certificate of achievement to any dog receiving 10000 points.
• BFA will award a Milestone certificate and award to any dog receiving 20,000 points.
• BFA will award a Milestone certificate and award to any dog receiving 30,000 points.
• BFA will award a Milestone certificate and award to any dog receiving 40,000 points.
• BFA will award a Milestone certificate and award to any dog receiving 50,000 points.
• BFA will award a valedictory certificate to any dog retiring full time from flyball regardless of points total. Certificate will identify dog and handler details, current club, first and last show, and status gained.
3. Multibreed is restricted to teams consisting of 4 separate breeds of dogs. Dogs can earn points in a similar way to open, in a Multibreed tournament. There are not as many of these events, and generally they are held on a bank holiday after the open tournament. The BFA gives an award for the "Multibreed Team Of The Year", which is given to the team who gets the fastest time in the season. For this competition, open teams will often merge together to get enough breeds. Popular "other" breed dogs that will often join in a team with a collie include; labradors, JRTs, crossbreeds, bearded collies and golden retrievers, to name but a few.
4. Singles is a competition of a single dog racing against one other and is usually decided on the times produced rather than by knockout or round robin formats. Dogs can't earn points, there are no official results and are completely separate from normal racing. These aren't held at every show, but are often grouped into starters singles, open singles and ABC (anything but collies) singles. The fastest dogs in the UK run 3.8-4.0 seconds, and the world record is held by a whippet who completed a run in 3.59 seconds.
5. Pairs this is similar to singles, except there are two dogs racing against two others. The fastest dogs in the country will run 8.5 seconds or less in pairs. Like singles, this can be split into multibreed, starters or open pairs.
Link to British Flyball Association - http://www.flyball.org.uk/
Flyball involves 2 teams of 4 dogs and handlers, racing against each other in separate lanes. Each dog on the team must jump 4 hurdles and retrieve a tennis ball from a spring-loaded device called the "box", and return back over the hurdles again. The dogs must pass with each other as close as possible on the start line, this is referred to as a "changeover", "cross" or "pass". The winning team is the first one to get all four dogs over the course and back again with no faults or early changeovers. There are five types of competition, see below.
For the long term health of the dogs, they must be 18 months old before they can compete in open flyball tournaments, and many are still racing aged 10 and over. Many clubs will allow dogs to start training from 10 months onward, or let younger dogs attend for socialisation and to soak up the atmosphere.
Although border collies are very popular in the sport, any dog can compete in flyball as long as they are fit enough. Dogs under 18 inches at the withers are called 'height dogs' and lower the jumps for the team they are racing with. Speed isn't necessarily everything, as teams are grouped into different divisions depending on times they have set together in the past.
A Brief History
Flyball began in the United States in the 1970's. In the UK, flyball is governed by the British Flyball Association, which was formed in 1994.
The sport has progressed hugely since then, now with more teams and a wider range of breeds than ever. All timing is now electronic, accurate to the nearest 1/100th of a second. A system of lights is used, both to start the race and to indicate if a dog has faults. Slightly different styles of boxes have become popular, many now similar to those used in the USA.
Team times have become faster on the whole throughout the world, the British record was held by High Flyers who hit the fastest ever British time of 16.66 seconds in September 2009. Due to the run not being filmed they were unable to be officially the British record holders but were the fastest BFA team until July 2015 when Mansfield Marnicks set a new British record of 15.79 seconds. Marnicks were then overtaken by WOW Wonderdogs in October 2015 with a time of 15.74. In October 2017 WOW beat their own time to create a new British and European record with a time of 15.05 seconds at the BFA Indoor Championships. The current record holders are Tails We Win with a time of 14.45.
The WORLD RECORD is an amazing 14.16 seconds, set in 2023 by Roadrunners, a Belgium team, European champions and Crufts champions.
The largest event in the BFA calendar is the British Flyball Outdoor Championships, held every August and popularly known among flyballers as "the champs". This event has no upper limit on entries, and sees nearly every team in the country take part over 3 days and in 2017 had grown so popular there were 5 arenas and almost 300 teams entered. Teams battle it out to win their respective divisions and Peak Performers were thrilled to win their division in 2017. The event of the weekend is when everyone gathers to watch division 1, to see who will get the coveted title of "British Flyball Champions" for that year. FOCUS are the current BFA Outdoor Champions with a time of 14.71 seconds.
Types of competition
There are five primary types of flyball competition.
1. Intermediate and Foundation tournaments are not sanctioned by the BFA, but are instead as the names suggest, ways for new dogs and handlers to be introduced to a competition setting. Dogs must be at least 12 months old, and the ring is set up the same as for an Open tournament, however wings can be used at the side of, or between jumps to help guide the dogs. Dogs don't have to trigger the box but must take the ball from it and boxloaders can give the dogs plenty of encouragement. Younger dogs benefit from lower jumps irrespective of their own height.
2. Open or Sanctioned tournaments are the main competitions. Any team of up to 6 dogs and handlers can enter, but only 4 dogs run at one time. Races are best of 5, and typically dogs will have 5 or 6 races in one day. The team's fastest time of the day is recorded and added to the Seedings list (find this on the BFA website). The seeding list is used to form divisions for tournaments to ensure fair and close racing.
When a team races in a BFA sanctioned flyball tournament each dog racing with that team can earn points towards a flyball title. Each of the 4 dogs contributing to a clean run (a run without any faults) will be awarded 20 dog points. 5 points will be awarded for each leg which is won.
These points then accumulate, and the dogs earn titles when they reach certain amounts of points. For these awards they are given certificates, or for milestone awards, they get glassware.
The awards are as follows:• BFA will award a certificate of achievement to any dog receiving 1000 points.
• BFA will award a certificate of achievement to any dog receiving 5000 points.
• BFA will award a certificate of achievement to any dog receiving 10000 points.
• BFA will award a Milestone certificate and award to any dog receiving 20,000 points.
• BFA will award a Milestone certificate and award to any dog receiving 30,000 points.
• BFA will award a Milestone certificate and award to any dog receiving 40,000 points.
• BFA will award a Milestone certificate and award to any dog receiving 50,000 points.
• BFA will award a valedictory certificate to any dog retiring full time from flyball regardless of points total. Certificate will identify dog and handler details, current club, first and last show, and status gained.
3. Multibreed is restricted to teams consisting of 4 separate breeds of dogs. Dogs can earn points in a similar way to open, in a Multibreed tournament. There are not as many of these events, and generally they are held on a bank holiday after the open tournament. The BFA gives an award for the "Multibreed Team Of The Year", which is given to the team who gets the fastest time in the season. For this competition, open teams will often merge together to get enough breeds. Popular "other" breed dogs that will often join in a team with a collie include; labradors, JRTs, crossbreeds, bearded collies and golden retrievers, to name but a few.
4. Singles is a competition of a single dog racing against one other and is usually decided on the times produced rather than by knockout or round robin formats. Dogs can't earn points, there are no official results and are completely separate from normal racing. These aren't held at every show, but are often grouped into starters singles, open singles and ABC (anything but collies) singles. The fastest dogs in the UK run 3.8-4.0 seconds, and the world record is held by a whippet who completed a run in 3.59 seconds.
5. Pairs this is similar to singles, except there are two dogs racing against two others. The fastest dogs in the country will run 8.5 seconds or less in pairs. Like singles, this can be split into multibreed, starters or open pairs.
Link to British Flyball Association - http://www.flyball.org.uk/