The Hertfordshire-based flyball team the High Flyers are joint hosts and organisers of the European Championships, a three day event which is likely to attract around 150 international teams and up to 2,000 dogs. It takes place in July 2012 at Littleport in Cambridgeshire.
Flyball in the main arena at Crufts 2011.
Sarah Hodgson is the author of Dog Tricks & Agility For Dummies. As well as being a prolific author, Sarah is a columnist, media personality and inventor, she talks about how simple, natural canine behaviours can be taught on command and developed. Flyball is a fast and furious dog sport, involving teams of four dogs racing over four jumps to collect tennis balls. The DogCast Radio team went along to a training session with the Carry Ons flyball team and found out exactly what flyball entails, what sort of dogs it suits, and how it can give some dogs the outlet they need. In the DogCast Radio News hear how dogs can convey different meanings in their growls, how a lurcher involved in a car accident had her body rebuilt, and how Kelly Osbourne sustained an injury breaking up a dog fight. Plus how did Buddy get on when he auditioned for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Wizard of Oz?
I went to a training session of the Carry Ons Flyball Team yesterday to research for an article and get some interviews for DogCast Radio. It was fascinating and a lot of fun and I'm grateful to the team to having us there. One thing I noticed was how excited the dogs get when a race is on - the noise level went through the roof, but as soon as the race was over peace descended again. And those dogs are so fast. They race in faster and slower teams, but the difference between them is only around a couple of seconds.