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Home | Dog Sports | What’s New | About | Contact | Store | Links

Agility | Conformation | Disc Dogs | Dock Diving | Earth Dog Trials | Flyball | Herding | Field Trials & Hunting | Lure Coursing  Obedience | Rally- O | Schutzhund & Protection Dogs | Therapy Dogs | Tracking | Pulling Sports

Flyball History

Flyball has been a growing dog sport since the early 1970s. Started in Southern California, a few trainers combined scent hurdle racing with fetching tennis balls to keep the dogs conditioned. Eventually, Herbert Wagner created the flyball box, which releases a tennis ball into the air when the dog triggers the spring-loaded pad. In the 1970s, Herbert Wagner performed flyball on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson...and a new dog sport was introduced to the world.

Subsequently, the new dog sport for dog enthusiasts was introduced in the Toronto-Detroit area by several dog training clubs. After a few small tournaments were held in conjunction with dog shows, the first ever flyball tournament was held in 1983.

In November, 1984, twelve teams from the Toronto-Detroit area formed the North American Flyball Association (NAFA). Mike Randall wrote the first NAFA rulebook in 1985, and was also the first NAFA Executive Director. The first head judge was Dave Samuels.

Today, flyball clubs and organizations exist all over the world. The current world record was set in Las Vegas in April, 2010. The record time of 14.864 seconds was set by Touch N Go, a Las Vegas team!

Check out the AthleticDogs.com store for everything you need for the flyball performance sport!

Flyball at AthleticDogs.com