1 of 2
On the ball
Energetic teams of dogs race to retrieve the ball and return to his trainer in the fast-growing sport of flyball.
Photo by Milton Morris
2 of 2
Good boy!
Huck, an energetic pointer hound, demonstrates a flawless turn on the flyball box, snatching his ball and sprinting back to his owner.
Photo by Milton Morris
Olivia Roop is doing everything she can to hold onto her dog, Huck, but the 60-pound pointer hound is tugging wildly at his harness and barking with such intensity that it leaves absolutely no doubt about his total commitment to the task at hand.
“All right, Huck,” Roop says into the dog’s ear. “Get ready, now. Let’s do this!”
Roop glances around at the three other dogs on Huck’s relay team—Dori, a little, fawn-colored Jack Russell terrier/toy poodle mix, an American cocker spaniel named Moose, and a spirited black-and-tan mixed breed named Izy.
Like Huck, they are stoked, barking and yipping and whining and, in short, doing their best to make as much noise as possible. They are having one heck of a good time.
In the adjacent lane, an opposing team of four dogs and their handlers are also waiting—just a few more seconds, now—for the race to start.
Huck knows exactly what he needs to do: run as fast as he can over four hurdles, pounce with his front paws onto a specially made box that will release a tennis ball for him to grab, then race like sin back over the hurdles to Roop so Dori, then Moose and then Izy can take their turns.
The team that completes the 34-yard relay in the shortest period of time, without making any mistakes, wins.
Now, as a judge standing between the two lanes gives the official sign to begin the race, a set of electronic timing lights clicks down from red to yellow to green.
Growing by leaps and bounds
It’s called flyball. Huck and his teammates are racing at the annual, weekend-long December tournament hosted by the Florence-based Pawmetto Pack Flyball Club, a group of a dozen or so dog lovers and their canine friends.
Over the next two days, the club will compete against other teams with names like Fur Fun, Dog Gone Fast, Turbo Paws, Dixie Flyers, Blockade Runners, On Your Bark, Heads or Tails, Double Dog Dare and Lunatic Fringe, all of which have traveled from around the region to share their love of flyball at the Eastern Carolina Agricultural Fairgrounds just east of Florence.
Flyball, or something close to it, has been around since the late 1960s. Dog lovers fiddled with the concept until rules were hammered out and key pieces of hardware, like the flyball box, were perfected. Then, in 1985, the North American Flyball Association (NAFA) was created, and suddenly, it was an official dog sport.
Since then, according to NAFA, some 700 clubs have been established in the United States and elsewhere, and the association now sanctions 300 tournaments each year.
Two of those tournaments—one in December and another in February—are hosted by the Pawmetto Pack in Florence, and some club members attend a dozen or more other competitions in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia or the three-day CanAm Classic, the largest flyball tournament in the world.
The race is on
To attend a flyball tournament is to be enveloped in a riotous atmosphere of relentless barking and seemingly nonstop racing. Each flyball race consists of three to five heats. Normally, a tournament is configured so that each team will run about 40 heats over a weekend.
Of the four dogs on each team, the shortest animal is called the “height dog,” and he or she is used to determine just how high the hurdles are for that team. Essentially, the shorter the height dog, the lower the hurdles.
“The minimum height for the hurdles is 7 inches,” says Jeffrey Jones, another member of the Pawmetto Pack club and longtime flyball veteran.
At the beginning of each race, the first dog—called the start dog—is released so that he or she hopefully crosses the start line just as the light turns green. If the line is crossed too soon, an electronic signal picks up the error, and the heat is restarted. As each dog returns carrying a ball, the release of the next dog is timed so that both dogs cross the start/finish line simultaneously.
The flyball box is the most sophisticated piece of equipment each team owns. It’s expensive, too, with new ones running as much as $1,500. The box has two or more holes, into which balls are fitted. When a dog hits the spring-loaded front panel, the ball is released for the dog to catch.
Depending on the individual dog, a ball is placed in a hole on the right side or the left side of the box. It turns out that most dogs have an unconscious preference for which way they turn once they get the ball.
Once a dog finishes running, the racer is rewarded with a tasty treat, like a hotdog or liverwurst or, for those less motivated by food, a quick game of tug-of-war with his or her owner.
‘Fun first’
Many teams dedicate themselves to logging the fastest times possible. They acquire dogs that are naturally suited to the sport and work with their animals until every nuance of the game has been mastered. The world record for a team of four dogs completing a single heat stands at less than 15 seconds.
While everyone involved in flyball admires those remarkable teams, most local competitors have more modest goals.
“Our club motto is ‘Fun First,’ ” says Linda Damiano, captain of the Pawmetto Pack Flyball Club. “We have fun with our dogs and enjoy each other’s company and that of the people we meet through the sport.”
Damiano took up flyball in 2009 with her Labrador retriever, Jack, then 1½ years old. Today, she’s also working with Abby, a rat terrier mix. It took two years of training to get Abby to the point where she could successfully compete in a race.
“Terriers can be very dense,” she concedes. “They do what they want to do.”
Deborah Rhodes, another member of Pawmetto Pack, works with three dogs. The youngest is a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever named Maya, who is still in training. The other two, Phoebe and Beckett—both American cocker -spaniels—run full time.
Phoebe is about as game a dog as can be found. While -glaucoma and cataracts have reduced her vision, Phoebe still practices and competes in races.
“Any dog can play this sport as long as they are having fun,” Rhodes says.
Sometimes, a dog will play flyball for possibly no other reason than simply to please its owner.
A perfect example is Margi Moore and her little, white toy poodle, Bentley, who—after 11 years of racing—retired at the December 2016 tournament as a Flyball Grand Champion.
“He’s a really nice dog,” says Moore, slipping Bentley a bit of cheese as an after-race treat. “But, he doesn’t live for flyball. He never did. But he ran for me, and so that’s pretty special.”
And, while Bentley was hanging it up for keeps, another dog on the team—a 3-year-old, brown-and-white Australian shepherd named Lilly, owned by Rene Palles of Florence—was just getting started.
“I think this is very cool,” says Moore, reflecting for a moment on what she calls the “circle of flyball.” “Bentley ran his last heat today, and Lilly ran her first heat today. It is sort of like Bentley passing on the torch to Lilly.”
Discipline, training and treats
Lilly had been training for about a year before her December 2016 debut, and Palles was delighted to see the result of their work together.
“I was having issues with Lilly being aggressive,” Palles says. “She would tolerate other dogs but did not like them a lot. And, she did not like strangers. But, since we’ve been doing this, her behavior has changed for the better. Flyball has been good for both of us.”
Lilly’s story is not unique. Roop’s dog, Huck, had similar difficulties to overcome in his early years with the sport.
“He was just out of control,” Roop says. “I could not even walk him on a leash. He’s almost 60 pounds, and he would drag me all over the place. Basically, he was in charge. He was running me—I was not running him!”
For a year and a half, Roop worked patiently with Huck until he mastered all the necessary flyball skills. He learned how to run over the hurdles without leaving the confines of the relatively narrow racing lane—an absolute no-no in flyball. And, he became adept at pouncing on the flyball box to get his tennis ball. His “swimmer’s turn,” that fluid turning motion to the right when he comes off the box, improved.
These days, Huck is a completely different dog. A well-loved member of his team, he has logged more than 15,000 points in competition—well on his way to becoming a Flyball Grand Champion. At the December 2016 tournament, Huck logged a personal-best time by running to the flyball box and back to Roop in 4.7 seconds.
“It’s been a lot of work,” Roop says. “But, it has all been worth it. I have a wonderful pet now, and we both love flyball.”
_____
Get More
The Pawmetto Pack Flyball Club will host its next regional tournament Feb. 10–11 at the Eastern Carolina Agricultural Fairgrounds in Florence. Attendance is free. The club also holds monthly practices and welcomes spectators and dog owners who are curious about the sport. For more information, contact David Moore at dmoore10@sc.rr.com. For more information on the sport and the club, visit pawmettopack.com or facebook.com/pawmettopackflyball.