Where to Get Flyball Equipment

It is absolutely essential. Training the dogs how to hit the box is the first part of flyball training. They will need to practice hitting it over and over. You will be expected to bring your own box to a tournament. The host club does not provide them. So, where do you find the blasted things?

Some factors to consider:

1. The chance of finding one in your hometown is highly unlikely. It is a specialty item.

2. Flyball boxes are big, awkward and heavy, so shipping is very expensive.

3. Used ones should be examined with a judicious eye. There is a reason a team doesn't want it anymore, and unless you know and are comfortable with the reason, don't buy it. Reasons used boxes can be sold off by teams can be, they bought a newer one and like the style better; it's an old style box that no longer conforms to the rules; it's worn out and doesn't function reliably, teams merged and they had an excess of equipment, or teams disbanded. Used boxes may be advertised through word of mouth at tournaments, throught the flyball mailing lists, or other places.

Flyball boxes have to conform to the rules of the venue that you are competing in. If you review the rulebooks of NAFA and U-FLI, you will see detailed information on how far the ejected ball has to bounce and what the dimensions of the box can be.

If you have a teammate who is handy with power tools, there are sites that have detailed instructions and kits for making your own boxes:
http://www.flyballequip.com/plans.htm http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/2119/boxplan.htm

You can find jump plans on the same sites.

There are some premade flyball box resources:

http://showcase.netins.net/web/doublejj/Box.html
http://www.premierflyballbox.com/
http://millerflyball.com/
http://www.xcergy.com/indexboxes.htm

When selecting a box, find one that your boxloader can move into position, functions realiably, and you understand the workings of enough to make emergency adjustments and repairs. Budget several hundred dollars for the box. It's important.

You'll need a hundred or more tennis balls. You don't want fresh ones. They will pop out of the flyball box, bounce off the line judge's chair, boing through the crowd, out the back door, and through the parking lot. So will your dogs, in hot pursuit. You want used ones, tennis balls that have seen their day on the tennis court and no longer have that fresh out of the box boing.

A good way to obtain these is make friends with the tennis coach at the high school, or the tennis instructor. You will also find them on eBay and Amazon, but, again, there is the shipping issue.

You will need a motivator, something to wave when you are screaming your dog's name, calling him back. People use everything from pork chops to purple duckies. However, the most common and most desirable (from the handler's standpoint) is a fleece tuggie. You can buy them, but why? They are easy to make: Buy fleece in the desired colors, cut it in strips, knot one end, braid the strips, knot the other end. You can make one during a ten minute break at a match.

There are nifty tricks. If you have a larger dog or one that seems to go through them quickly, braid in cotton rope. If you want a loop handle, tie a loose knot about a third of the way up the strips, braid the strips until you have about a third left, undo the knot, and braid all of those strips in the two ends together. Knot the end. For thicker tugs, cut wider strips, for longer ones, sew strips together end to end. If you know macrame, you can use crown knots, instead of braiding.

However, if you really want to buy one, there are teams that make them and sell them at matches, which is a good way to support your fellow flyball community.

Matting is used on the front of flyball boxes and long runners are laid down on running surfaces like concrete that are too hard impact on the dogs. Most of the matting seems to be tuff spun anti fatigue runners. You can purchase it in long runners from the manufacturer, or sometimes get it used via the flyball mailing list.

Called "ball shaggers" "ball hoppers" "that ball basket thinamagig," these aren't absolutely necessary. They are used to collect the balls the dogs drop in the runback area. They can be quite nifty because they are designed with just enough space between the wires to mash a tennis ball and have it pop through and be trapped in the basket, so you don't have to bend over. However they aren't absolutely necessary, just really convenient.

Anyway, here's a link:

http://www.midwestsports.com/tennis-ball-hoppers/c/50003/bhcd2/1249345788/