The History of Flyball

Flyball, an offshoot of scent hurdle racing, was introduced in California in the early 1970s by Herbert Wagner. Scent hurdle racing was already popular around much of the country. In scent hurdle racing the dogs must go over four jumps and pick up one of four articles - the article scented by the handler. Each article is numbered 1 through 4. The dogs wore racing jackets identified with the same number as their article. Herbert Wagner did a Flyball demonstration on the Tonight Show. Soon, dog training clubs around the US and Canada were putting on Flyball demonstrations at dog shows, nursing homes, county fairs and schools. Many of the clubs had scent hurdle teams, making the transition to Flyball easy. Furthermore, Flyball added another dimension to their programs. Dog training clubs, most notably Sportsmen's Dog Training Club of Detroit and McCann vs. McCann in the Toronto area, introduced Flyball to the Great Lakes area. Other dog training clubs in the area picked up on the sport and tournaments were soon organized.

The NAFA was founded by Mike Randall on November 7, 1984, following a near diaster at the Met in Toronto, Ont in November 1984. With $10,000 in prize money, tournament director Herb Williams failed to secure any judges or provide any rules for competition. The original teams were:

• Front Runners from Ann Arbor, MI
• ABC Odedience School from Okemos, MI
• Canine Workshop (Canine Express) from Mt. Clemens MI
• Hamilton Dog Training Club from Burlington, Ont
• Tri-cities Dog Training Club from Birch Run, MI
• Swansea Dog Obedience Club from Bramlea, Ont
• J & J From Sharon, Ont
• Companion Dog Training Club from Grand Blanc MI
• McCann vs. McCann from Greenville, Ont
• Train'em Dog Training Center from Paris, Ont
• Silver Collar Obedience Club from Maton Ont.
• Double D Dog Training Club, From Roseville, MI

Sue Ethier says:
Although I wasn't at any of these 3 tournaments, I was a newly joined member of the Companion DTC Flint Eliminators in 1985. Our team then consisted of:

• Quincy, a Beagle (owned by Clyde Moore, our fearless leader!)
• Rusty and Buddy, Golden Retreivers (Shelley Mannings)
• Casey, Golden Retriever (Cindy Verrell)
• Tarz, Golden Retriever (Lonnie [Morgan] Olson)
• Honeybear, Golden Retriever (Peggy O'Keefe)
• Jonathan, Golden Retriever (Sally Slade)
• Brandy, Irish Setter (Cindy Baxter)
• Taffi, Pembroke Welsh Corgi (Sally Slade)
• Caine, American Staffordshire Terrier (Connie Croley)
• Tila and Dancer, Belgian Sheepdogs (Carilee Cole)
• Jill, Doberman (Lynn Luther)
• Gip, Border Collie (Connie Croley)
• Magic, Flat Coated Retriever (Kurt Wright)
• Doozer, Dachshund (my little guy!)

There were no start lights and no passing lights. All of the starts and passes were called by the line judges, who also used hand-held stopwatches to time the races. The race was started by the head judge; the judge would do a basic "ready, set, go" and blow the whistle on the "go". As you can imagine, a lot of the dogs were very keyed into the whistle and got quite excited when they heard it! It was very strange running with the lights for the first time and not having that start whistle.

I have a few old programs from some of the tournaments we hosted. Entered in the 3rd annual Genesee County Open in April 1986 were:

Trainers' Trippers (Pontiac, MI)

• Sheltie Jeremy (Betty McLeod)
• Miniature Poodle Freeway (Diane Cornwall)
• Lab Olympia (Dave Roat)
• German Shepherd Tara (Michele Parton)
• Lab Blaze (Rick Dazuta)
• Scotter (breed not noted) (Dave and Jan Meinhard)

Paw Power (Chicago, IL)

Front Runners (Ann Arbor, MI)

• Golden Retriever Aubrey (Beckie Randall)
• Rottweiler Rosco (Jane Justice)
• Belgian Tervuren Cisco (Pam Schultz)
• Border Collie Trey (Connie Ruegsegger)
• Doberman Wendy (Jerry Scharphorn)
• Doberman Kaz (Ginger Burrison)

Pawbusters (Lansing, MI)

• English Cocker Katie (Laura Parks)
• Lab Meka (Pam Jacobson)
• Border Collie Jacob (Mark Jacobson)
• American Cocker Spaniel Teddy (Shirley Barnes)
• Border Collie Katie (Linda Krcatovich)

Canine Express (Mt. Clemens, MI)

• Border Collie Bullet (Liz Wilson)
• Doberman Dana (Kathie Duguid)
• Golden Retreiver Doobie (Sue Lakies)
• Dalmation Dotty (Darlene Woz)
• Pembroke Welsh Corgi Trucker (Jim Cogswell)

Swansea OTC (Swansea, ON)

• German Shepherd Sammi (Ron English)
• Golden Retriever Tara
• Poolde Shane
• Lab Ember (John Grant)

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