What the Heck is Flyball??

All three of our Mini Schnauzers are flyball racers and are considered height dogs, since they are the smallest dogs on their team. They aren't the fastest racers, but they are very consistent (they jump over the jumps, get their ball, and come back over the jumps), and they sure look cute doing it!!

You can watch them practicing at www.youtube.com/dogshirtstore.

Taken directly from the NAFA (North American Flyball Association) website (www.flyball.org), the following is a good explanation of the sport of flyball:

Flyball races match two teams of four dogs each, racing side-by-side over a 51 foot long course. Each dog must run in relay fashion down the jumps, trigger a flyball box, releasing the ball, retrieve the ball, and return over the jumps. The next dog is released to run the course but can't cross the start/finish line until the previous dog has returned over all 4 jumps and reached the start/finish line. The first team to have all 4 dogs finish the course without error wins the heat.

Jump height is determined by the smallest dog on the team – this dog, called the "height dog", is measured at the withers, then that number is rounded down to the nearest inch and another 5" is subtracted to get the jump height (with the minimum jump height being 7"). So a 13 1/4" dog would round down to 13", minus 5", would jump 8". Maximum jump height is 14".

In the early days of flyball, there were no start lights and no passing lights. All of the starts and passes were called by the line judges, who also used hand-held stopwatches to time the races. The race was started by the head judge; the judge would do a basic "ready, set, go" and blow the whistle on the "go". Minimum jump heights were 10", and were determined by measuring the smallest dog on the team at the withers and rounding up or down to the nearest inch (so a 13 1/2" dog would jump 13", while a 13 3/4" dog would jump 14").

With the onset of the Electronic Judging System (EJS), which uses lights and infrared timing sensors [it reminds us of car racing lights], competitors were suddenly able to track their starts, passes, finishes, and individual dogs' times to the thousandth of a second. It's hard to imagine racing without an EJS in this day and age. Many teams run all 4 dogs through the course in less than 20 seconds. The NAFA World Record is now 15.22.