Is Your Dog Ready To Race?
 
 
 
Just about everyone who starts coming out to flyball practice looks forward to the first time their dog 
can be entered to race as part of a team. However, there are certain things your dog must be able 
to do before the club captain can consider letting your dog run in the ring. 
 
It’s easy to see when your dog has mastered the basic flyball pattern, but the flyball ring is an 
extraordinarily distracting place and your dog needs a lot of training to prepare him so that he won’t 
be completely overwhelmed by all the noise and confusion. Remember that, on average, you and 
your dog will be in a ring along with:
 
 One head judge
 Two Line Judges
 Two Box Judges
 Two Box Loaders
 A minimum of three other dogs/handlers from your team (max of five)
 A minimum of four other dogs/handlers from the other team (max of six)
 Two ball shaggers
 And other assorted members of the teams’ entourage.
 
ALL of them will be milling about, doing what they do, making noise, and your dog will have to be 
able to deal with this chaos with focus and self-control. This is very important for the safety of all 
people and dogs in the ring.
 
So to help prepare your dog, The Pawmetto Pack has created an objective set of criteria for 
determining when a dog is ready to run in a tournament. We tried to set them up in order of 
increasing difficulty, so that handlers have a sensible and clearly defined path to take toward 
achieving the goal of competition. The list also serves to remind the club captain what a dog 
needs to work on to improve his flyball skills.
 
If your dog can perform all of the minimum requirements below, he is ready to be considered for 
a place in the lineup. We have another page of information explaining how new dogs will be 
introduced to the flyball ring. 
 
If you believe your dog can pass the minimum requirements and the captain has not mentioned 
anything about your dog competing, then feel free to bring the subject up for discussion.