Flyball is a fast and loud team sport invented in California during the late 1970's, which has now spread worldwide.

Flyball is a relay race between two teams of dogs and their owners. Each "race" can consist of 3 to 5 "heats." There are four dogs per team that run in a given heat racing the other team on the two racing lanes set side-by-side which are spaced 12 to 17 feet apart. Each dog on the team is, in turn, released by his owner to run down his team's racing lane, jump over four hurdles spread along the lane, trigger the Flyball box which ejects a ball, grab the ball, and return back to his owner over the four hurdles carrying the ball. Once over the start/finish line, the next dog on the team can run. The fastest team to run clean wins. The racing lane's hurdles are spread 10 feet apart from each other with the first hurdle 6 feet from the start line. The Flyball box is 15 feet from the last hurdle for an overall 51-foot racing lane. The Flyball box is a spring loaded box that shoots out a ball when the front pedal of the box is pushed by the dog.

The dogs can make errors by missing one or more jumps, forgetting or dropping the ball before returning over the start/finish line, or crossing the start/finish line before the dog before him returns over the line. If an error occurs, the dog must run again.

The height of the hurdles depends on the smallest dog on the team. The hurdles are set 4" below the shoulder height of the smallest dog, with 8" as the minimum height and 16" as the maximum height. All breeds and mixed breeds are welcome to play.

In Flyball tournaments teams are placed in Divisions according to the team's individual speed, so teams of equal speed race each other. Titles are awarded in Flyball and these are explained below. The individual dog can earn points towards his Flyball title based on the time it takes the dog's team to run a heat:

A heat run in less than 32 seconds: Each dog on the team earns 1 point
A heat run in less than 28 seconds: Each dog on the team earns 5 points
A heat run in less than 24 seconds: Each dog on the team earns 25 points

The titles the dogs can earn are:

Abbreviation - Title - Points needed to earn the title

FD - Flyball Dog -20
FDX - Flyball Dog Excellent -100
FDCh - Flyball Dog Champion -500
FM - Flyball Master - 5,000
FMX - Flyball Master Excellent - 10,000
FMCh - Flyball Master Champion -15,000
ONYX - ONYX Award - 20,000
FGDCh - Flyball Grand Champion - 30,000