Our team was founded in 2016 in Poznań from a group of friends and strangers who shared a common passion for dog sports. From year to year, or rather from month to month, the team attracts new members who are curious about what this mysterious Flyball is. So that everyone understands our love for this unique canine sport, we will introduce you to this sport a bit.
What is Flyball?
Loosely translated, Flyball means “flying ball”. However, the best definition is dog relay racing. Two teams, consisting of four dogs and their handlers, race on parallel tracks. The task of each team is to overcome the track as quickly as possible, what matters here is flawlessness, tacticsand the team’s teamwork,and the duel lasts for hundredths of a second.
Each team enters six dogs into the competition, although only four are raced in each match. They are replaced as needed or according to team tactics. Most teams strive to have at least one small dog in their composition. height dog. The height of the obstacles is adjusted to the shortest dog so that taller teammates can develop more speed.
The first dog in the team must cross the photocell line when the green light turns on, otherwise it is a false start. Then it has to jump over 4 obstacles – the so-called jumps and at the end of the track take the ball from a special box (it throws the ball after the dog jumps on it) and return through the same obstacles, passing the photocell. IF the dog releases the ball or avoids obstacles, such a run should be corrected. At the end of the track, the owner waits for the dog, calls and rewards it.
Who can train Flyball?
The beautiful thing about Flyball is that there are no restrictions – all dogs are welcome,regardless of age, pedigree and mongrels, small and large 🙂
It is a team sport, so it can be said that it is for a group of people who share a common passion, willingness to work with a dog and a spirit of competition. It is important that Flyball is great fun for both the dog and the owner. If the dog is healthy and willing to work, you can start your adventure with Flyball! It is a great source of emotions, building friendships and teaching competition.
How to start and where?
It’s best to contact an existing team and come to practice. Then you can see up close what the preparation for the competition looks like and assess whether it is a sport for you.
For the first few months, novice dogs learn to focus their attention on the owner and how to build motivation for the toy. Because the most important thing here is having fun. Flyball is a constant work on increasing the dog’s motivation to work.
Finally, the time comes to introduce strictly flyball elements, such as overcoming obstacles or bouncing off the box – and here we often stop for longer, because it is of key importance for the speed itself, but above all for the dog’s health. Only after all individual exercises do we start team exercises, which require the dog to work in huge distractions (a large number of dogs around, noise).
There’s strength in the team and if you hit as well as we do, Flyball will definitely become yours passion. This is guaranteed by us, the team of Dziki Gzików from Poznań 🙂
