What is Flyball?
Flyball is a relay race between two teams of four dogs. Dogs race over four hurdles down to a box, trigger the box, releasing a tennis ball, catch the ball and race back over the hurdles. The current world record is 15.22 seconds for all four dogs to complete the race!! But, even not so speedy dogs can still have fun and compete in Flyball.
The History of Flyball
The sport of Flyball has been in Colorado since 2000, but it actually started in California back in the 1970s. While the precise origins of the sport are still unclear, legend has it that the whole thing started when a man named Herbert Wagner invented the first spring-loaded box to shoot a tennis ball for his dogs.
Wagner was a professional dog trainer and he originally invented the game of Flyball as a reward for his Obedience students. They used to play Flyball as part of their graduation ceremonies. But the sport was so much fun that word began to get out and the next thing Wagner knew, he was invited to perform on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to demonstrate what his amazing dogs could do. When folks around the country saw Flyball on TV they wanted to get involved, too, and they started forming Flyball clubs of their own. The sport especially took off in Canada and the Great Lakes states. Folks there started having local tournaments and competitions and the popularity of Flyball grew.
Pretty soon an organization was needed to regulate the sport, so the North American Flyball Association (NAFA)was formed. NAFAŽ writes all the official rules of Flyball, sanctions tournaments and keeps track of all the awards and titles earned. Over the years the popularity of Flyball has continued to grow. NAFAŽ now has over 900 Flyball clubs with more than 10000 registered Flyball dogs. The sport is played not only in the U.S. and Canada, but also in Australia, Japan, England, Belgium and other countries around the world.
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About Flyball