Page 111 - K9News_Issue13_October2020_download_Neat

I sent a message to Brighton Flyball. They said
“if your dog is ball obsessed then flyball is for
him” but they did add that they had never trained
a bulldog before and would be very interested to
see if he could run and jump.

There began the journey and the mad world of
flyball in May 2016.

Lucky proved himself on the 1st training night,
he could run jump and retrieve a ball. (even
We renamed our team to Brighton Ball Sorts and
though it was a battle to get him to drop it)
entered our first flyball championships in 2018.
This was very exciting as all the flyball teams
Lucky and I were regularly training every week,
from the UK enter, this was a great experience
we moved up classes and we eventually made it
and a huge learning curve. Again Lucky did
to a team which was called Brighton Bouncers.
draw a crowd and the flyball photographer loved
taking photos of him in action.
We entered our 1st flyball competition, which
was very exciting to put all our training into
We didn’t win our division. In fact we came last!
action. It was very funny as all our team went to
But we came away with a lot of knowledge and
pieces. But lucky did draw a crowd as a no one
experience.
had seen a bulldog do flyball.
We trained hard and qualified for the following
From then onwards we were hooked and
years championships. We only went and won
we slowly progressed, entering competitions
our division! This was a major achievement for
regularly and improving, getting more
our team as we are not the usual mix for a flyball
experience, learning different training
team. We were a championships winning team
techniques.
of division 9 in 2019 which had a Bulldog in it.
Lucky at the moment is the only Bulldog
competing in open flyball competitions in the UK
but more are following in his footsteps as we
have inspired other bulldogs and their owners to
take part in flyball.

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K9 NEWS DIGITAL / JULY 2020