As previously mentioned in this blog the greatest thing and the worst thing about flyball is that it is a team sport. There is no playing flyball unless you have a team. On occasion you can trip through a tournament with a few borrowed handlers and a boxloader, but really to function you need a minimum of five humans and four dogs.The perfect teammate would be:
- Someone with one or more high energy, high drive dogs.
- A bit of an adrenaline junkie, that “gets” the thrill of the sport
- A “team player”. Contributes to the work of setting up, practice and other team chores.
- Is realistic about their dog’s abilities and that there are times that their dog might not race because the faster dog on the team must race in their place for the team to win.
- Has the financial means to play the sport and pays his/her bills on time.
- Has the ability to commit an entire weekend to participate in a tournament.
- Has the ability and self discipline to attend practice weekly
- Has the ability to listen, learn and understand the role the handler plays in safe flyball racing.
- Loves their dogs immensely and want to spend wonderful, fun quality time with them.
With all the thousands of dog owners in America it is amazing such a small percentage play this game. There have to be more folks out there… just how to find them.
So what works, what doesn’t.
Demos
This is great for educating the public that the sport exists, but I have yet to recruit a solid teammate from a demo. Usually the “gestation” stage for someone to go from seeing a demo to joining a team is so long as to not be able to make the connection.
TV Coverage
Again, good for educating the public on the sport, but the TV watcher’s usual reaction is “hmm.. that’s cool” and that’s the end of it.
Print Articles
A bit better than TV as far as bringing out the interested.. especially when the article lists contact info or practice times
Referrals from Vets or Obedience trainers
This has worked for us and brought in great dogs. Folks are usually having a conversation with their Vet or Obedience trainer about their dog’s boundless energy and need for an outlet which leads to the suggestion to try flyball.
Word of mouth
At dog parks, at work, in social gatherings. This has brought great people with trainable if not outstanding dogs. Sometimes “great people” is more important to a positive flyball experience than “outstanding dogs”. Of course “great people” and “outstanding dogs” is the jackpot.
Beginner Classes
Many teams have great luck with this… others have burnt out their trainer with so many students that come and then give up when they realize dog training takes hard work.
Website
A good website is the final step to bring someone to your team. Up to date information, action photos, photos of fun times and most important a reliable contact link that you respond to when they email you. Folks that have heard of the sport start searching for a team in their area. Make sure you are listed on all the search links with your proper website and contact info
Have you found any other methods that have brought you success?
Connie
7 comments ↓
One method that has worked well to expand flyball in Ohio is to identify Dog Obedience and/or Dog Sports Clubs that do not offer flyball currently.
Have your flyball team offer to instruct a flyball class for this club. An alternative is for your whole team to offer a Flyball Seminar for an entire weekend. That is how the “Four Seasons Frenzied Flyers” got their start. “Fur in a Blur” had friends in the Four Seasons Agility Arena and offered to do a weekend flyball seminar for this Agility club.
By reaching out to clubs that are organized for Dog Obedience or Agility, you are reaching out to people who already know a bit about dog training. Also, they understand competing in an organized event. The Agility people understand competing in a timed event so the transition to flyball is easier than to the general public.
Hope that helps!
……chris
I saw Flyball on a show that featured Sasha, the yellow Labrador owned by Kathryn Hogg. Kathryn and Sasha were getting their Onyx award. I was enthralled and begged Larry to find a team for our Labrador, Paige.
Just recently someone contacted us who saw Flyball on ESPN and wanted to try it out for her Springer Spaniel. She has already been here once and is hoping to come back. I’m very hopeful for this dog because I can look in her eyes and see intelligence. She wants to play.
So my opinion about television spots is a little biased, but I think it works better than you would expect.
Fay
I got my first taste of Flyball at the Detroit Kennel Club Dog Show. There was a demo (I believe it was Pawsitive Attitudes, could be wrong) and I said “my dog would be awesome at that!” I did sit on it a few monthes before I joined up with a team, but that was totally what sparked the fire.
We do several demo’s a year. Unfortunately, we tend to get people who want to try flyball thinking: “My dog can do that!” They come to a couple of classes then stop coming after they realize the level of committment the sport requires and that you can’t train a dog to play the game overnight.
On the positive side - one of our teams greatest recruiting assets so far has been our website. We invest a lot of time and energy into always keeping our website up to date and interesting. We are constantly adding new pictures, videos, updates on the dogs, etc. Along with the new hits we receive each month, we have a lot of ‘repeat visitors’ and we want them to keep coming back and checking on their ‘favorite’ dogs. We also have several rescue dogs in the club and it’s a nice way for the rescue’s to check in our a dog’s progress.
It’s an investment (both time and money) to maintain a great website - but if you gain new members it’s definitely worth it. Plus, most people who are into dog sports aren’t necessarily independently wealthy.
Most of us have to work a 40+ hour a week job to be able to support our dog sport habit - and let’s face it, many of us are sitting behind a computer during that time.
So, say you saw flyball on Animal Planet one night and wanted to find a team in your area, where would you go? Google, Yahoo, wherever to search flyball. When someone does that search I want OUR team’s website to standout and grab your attention. I don’t want you going to my competitor 30 minutes down the road. And how am I going to go about grabbing you? By having a nice website that’s up to date and fun — a site that makes you WANT to play with US!
I think a good website is a wise investment for any team out there looking to recruit members.
I am really pleased with this post - I was getting so tried of reading all the negative, underhanded posts that were polarizing flyball. Great blog Connie - keep it up!!!
We’ve had some of the same experience as Jeannie. We have folks that see us at demos and will as if they can step in and see if their dog will “do that” or ask if you have to train your dog to do flyball. We kind of “screen” folks that talk to us at demos to see if they are somewhat dog savvy or have had any previous training experience. If not, we’ll suggest they take a basic obedience class to learn about training basics and to get their dogs socialized around other dogs and different situations.
I also teach agilty classes and we have gotten some folks from that who just love to do various dog sports.
Our website has a lot of information about how we function and we get folks to take a look there first, to see if they think they would be interested in our club and then we invite them to observe a training session without their dog and then if they want to continue, we let them try out a couple of sessions for no cost. We also have an associate membership program until we/they are sure that they want to committ to becoming a regular member.
Beth
I found out about our team from a banner, for the flyball team, on a local dog board…Also, team members were on the board. I kept reading about it, as the board has an area for dog sports one being flyball. Members would post about tournaments, results etc…..And after some persuasion from others, we decided to go and give it a try. WE ARE HOOKED!
Yes there were times i thought my dog would never ever get it and I thought about giving up. Thank God for my team mates who kept believing in my dog even when I did not..
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