In many places, one being where I live, flyball is a four letter word. What does that mean you say? It means that the majority of dog people, obedience and agility, think that flyball is a bad thing. I have been battling this for the last 7 years and it hasn’t gotten any better. I think it mostly stems from a few people but when those few people are the only ones in the area that offer agility training their voices are pretty loud.
Before we even knew about flyball, my wife and I were members of an obedience club in Montgomery, AL. At the time it was the only place in the city that even offered obedience training. It is still rather well known throughout the city as the place for dog obedience and agility training. Even to this day, they are very old school, but I think now they are using clicker in their agility classes. When I started in puppy classes with my first Border collie, Casey, I used a clicker to train him at home and pretty much ignored the training material that I received in class. I told the instructor what I was doing and she pretty much thought that I was crazy (this was 1999). I was really only taking the class for one purpose, socialization. Casey and I went through Puppy, Beginner, and Novice 1 obedience classes with the club.
About same time, my wife, Fay, and her Labrador retriever, Paige, were in Novice 2 obedience and beginner agility training. In this club, your dog had to advance through Novice 1 to be enrolled in agility. Paige was never very fond of agility and really did it because Fay wanted her to. Being a young Lab and full of energy, she really needed something else to siphon some of her energy. One morning while watching Animal Planet, Fay saw flyball and as they say, the rest is history. Since there were no flyball teams in Montgomery, we had to travel to Birmingham which was about 100 miles from our home. After our dogs were playing for a while, we wanted our own team in Montgomery so we wouldn’t need to travel so far. There were 3 of us, me, Fay and Julia Markham. Julia was also a member of the obedience club.
The 3 of us went to the membership of the club and told them that we would like to put together a flyball team and asked for their help. Well, you would have thought that the world was coming to an end. There was a lot of resistance to it to say the least. After all, the club was an AKC obedience and agility club. There would be no help from the club and flyball became a bad word for most of the members. However, we were able to get the word out about our endeavor and a few people from the club were interested and wanted to try it out. Word got back to the club that some agility people were looking at flyball and all of sudden everyone quit.
A few other attempts were made but those also failed, and up until last month we were still running with people from Birmingham. It has been very frustrating getting so close and then failing. However, we are not giving up and will make one more valiant attempt. We know that there are now others, besides the club, teaching obedience in places like Pet Supplies Plus, PETCO, and PetSmart. We will again be putting flyers out in stores and Veterinary clinics and we will be meeting at Pet Supplies Plus for practice and recruiting sessions. However, the club still has a firm hold on all agility in the area, but maybe we will succeed this time. If anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them.
What is it with AKC clubs and their fear for anything associated with other organizations? Has anyone experienced this same problem?
Larry
6 comments ↓
I’ve also encountered flyball hostility. One of my disc friends said “so what you just do flyball for the exercise . . .” I think most people don’t realize all the training involved and just assume it’s not hard to teach a dog to go get the ball. I train in herding, disc, and flyball, and my dog enjoys flyball the most. I enjoy the team aspect of the sport and feel that no other dog activity can offer that. As for trying to start a club, we get lots of interest when we do demostrations. Would your current club be willing to do a demostration in your area? It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just contact a local store, county fair, or dog event and see if they would like to have a demo. Put up some posters to advertise and hope you get some interest. When people see how much the dogs love it they get more interested. GOOD LUCK!
We have done many demonstrations and put posters and flyers out.
This may sound very… ignorant, but have you tried to demo or coach 4-H clubs? It would have to be a long term commitment, but because it’s a team sport you might not get as much resistance. Plus, you’ll be coaching the next generation of Flyball handlers.
I think it’s been done in WI, but I’m not sure.
PS - I know nothing about 4-H!
I’ve definitely encountered that locally, some of it is due to the attitude of the original folks playing flyball in the area many years ago, when training was nil. Also as some people left flyball due to team conflicts they were bitter & told others, and it tainted some people’s view of flyball. Other obed/agil. people see it as dogs out of control and can’t imagine that their dogs could do it, and the barking…that clearly means dogs are outta control!
I have had a more recent upsurge in interest from people just getting involved in dog sports. I more recently started teaching agility and when I tell students about my background they are intrigued. I can also point to some great skills that cross over from flyball to agility & vice versa. Hum, let’s see we work on speed, recall to owner, working at a distance from the handler, toy drive…all of the things I see agility folks clamoring for too. Oddly enough many of the agility old timers have no clue how to train that stuff either. I still hear murmurings from agility old timers that flyball will ruin your agility dog, they’ll learn to jump flat, they’ll speed up & you won’t be able to control them. Bunch of BS if you ask me, our team has lots of very competitive agility dogs on it and they are the dogs that people watch at agility trials and ohh & ahh over, so I guess flyball ruined them. In any case, just be aware that those sentiments are out there. So sometimes it’s a lot easier to concentrate on new to dog sport folks, do demos & show TRAINING during the demos too. Some folks see only the end product & can’t think of how you get a dog to that point. You might want to offer a flyball seminar for people to come try out some basics with their dog, no committment, but if they see some success & get personal encouragement, you might reel ‘em on in.
I live in Montgomery, and found your blog because I am looking for agility and/or flyball training that is not run by MADOC for my dog. She is a field-bred springer spaniel, tons of energy, and our 2-mile daily walks are not enough. Plus, she is extremely agile and flat out fast. I know she would love it. Please email me with info about demos, classes, etc. So glad I found you!
Jamie, get your ESS in flyball! I have a retired ESS - that at one time was the # 3 pointed ESS in NAFA; and I have the fastest ESS in U-FLI 4.2 seconds. Ranger is one of the rare ESS’s that runs for a tug and not food! We know how they love food! There are a few clubs in Atlanta…I know the Gamblers and they are great, but, all the other teams in the area are also super great. Mine are also both field bred ESS’s.
Good luck!
Jackie
Leave a Comment