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Let's Race
by
Alisa Romaine
Flyball is the fastest growing team dog sport in North America. It has something for everybody: the fun of competing as a team with other handlers and dogs, titles to be earned by the dogs, and the thrill of a close race, but best of all, any dog can compete.
Flyball got its start in the 1980s in the Toronto-Detroit area. A few small tournaments were held in conjunction with area dog shows and then, in 1983, the first official flyball tournament was held. The North American Flyball Association (NAFA) was quickly formed to standardize rules, register the racing dogs, keep records of the tournaments, and guide the further development of the sport. At its inception, NAFA consisted of 12 teams from Michigan and Ontario. Today, there are over 600 registered teams and well over 14,700 registered dogs. Of those registered dogs, 104 are Staffords. Just a couple years ago, only 75 of those were Staffords so the small dog has gained in popularity.
The first flyball Stafford, Kelly, ran with Tailspinners from Canada. Teams exposed
to Kelly fell in love with her fire and decided they had to have a Stafford of their own.
Thereafter, Staffords slowly began to be seen in flyball in the United States and
throughout Canada. Now, there are Staffords racing in nearly every NAFA region.
Stafford owners seek each other out at tournaments and are known to schedule
family vacations around flyball tournaments in the area they are traveling to. As of
the writing of this article, Staffordshire Bull Terriers registered with NAFA were
holding titles from Flyball Dog (20 points) through Flyball Dog Grand Champion
(30,000). Kelly, of course, was the first Stafford to hold each of these titles in
succession. Kelly died this last year and will be sorely missed by the flyball
community. Her legacy lives on in the Staffords racing today.
Each racing team is made up of a minimum of four dogs with a maximum of six
dogs; however, only four dogs can run in a heat. Each team also likes to have a
“height dog” included on the roster because jump heights are set four inches lower than the height at the withers of the shortest dog on the team. The minimum height is 8” and the maximum height is 16”. It is in this position on the flyball team that the Staffordshire Bull Terrier has found its niche.
The ideal flyball dog has tons of heart and drive combined with speed. All of these elements are contained in the small package fondly called Staffies by the flyball community. These tough little dogs are easy to train and, once called upon to race, they give 150% every heat of every race. While quite a few teams use two height dogs that they rotate so that neither dog tires, the teams running Staffords have found that these dynamos generally get faster the more they run; often running their fastest times at the end of the second day of the tournament. And, which dogs garner the largest cheering section at any flyball tournament? You guessed it - the Staffords. No other dog shows its enthusiasm for flyball quite like the Stafford, from dragging its handler to the racing lanes to chortling at the top of its lungs while waiting to run.
Flyball races match two teams of four dogs, racing side-by-side over a 51 foot long course. Each dog must run in relay fashion over the four jumps, trigger the flyball box, retrieve the ball that is released, and return back over the jumps. The next dog is then released to run the course but he may not cross the start/finish line until the preceeding dog has crossed the start/finish line. The ideal that most teams strive for is both dogs passing nose-to-nose at the start/finish line. The first team to have all four of their dogs finish the course without errors wins the heat. In today’s age or racing, many teams can run all four dogs through the course in under 17 seconds. The NAFA record is 15.36 seconds.
Flyball tournaments are divided into divisions so that teams of like speed race each other. Once they obtain their competition racing number (CRN), any dog is eligible to compete and earn NAFA titles. The titles are earned by a point system that is based on the speed of the team’s run in each heat. Most races are comprised of anywhere from 3-5 heats. The winning team of each race also earns points toward tournament placements.
To check out the flyball Staffords and find more information on flyball, visit the NAFA web site at www.flyball.org. To see the names of the racing Staffords along with their owner and team names, go directly to the NAFA breed listing at http://nafadb.flyball.org/breedlist.htm. Scroll down and click on the breed name. The best web site for flyball trivia, team locator, record holders, training tips and equipment is the original flyball web site: www.flyballdogs.com. If it’s not contained somewhere in this site, you probably don’t need to know it!
So Staffanatics -- Let’s Race!
by Alisa Romaine
