Yes! Just about any dog can be trained to do flyball, it just takes varying degrees of persistence and patience from the handler. In our team we have many different breeds including large dogs such as German Shepherds and Dobermann to tiny dogs such as Jack Russell's. All of the dogs in our teams work well together and it's quite something to see all of them running around having a great time, when a new dog joins the "pack" it sometimes takes a while for them to be accepted but after the initial introductions we have never had a problem with a new dog fitting in. Quite a few of our dogs come from various rescue centres and it is wonderful to see them having a fantastic time after perhaps not having the best start in life.
So dogs can be large or small, pedigrees or pooches. It makes no difference to their enjoyment and ability.
The main requirements for attending our training sessions are that your dog is a minimum of 10 months old, loves playing ball, has a fairly good off lead recall a good level of fitness and is sociable with other dogs.
Now to the next most important question, can you try it? Of course the answer is yes! In our team you need to have a sense of humour and be prepared to muck in and of course a competetive streak really helps. Every one gets involved in all aspects of training such as box loading and line judging as well as handling the dogs and we have a great team spirit which we are very proud of.
If you don’t have a dog at the moment but would like to be involved then please get in touch. We are always looking for people to train as box loaders, handlers and line judges. Just contact us at assist@hotshotsflyball.org.uk
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