The NEW Pre-Flight #Flyball Class

{The following article was published previously on "The Flyball Blog" 02/27/2012. It is reprinted here with the author's permission. The Flyball Blog is scheduled for shut down in June, 2012.}

Effective as of November 1, 2011, version 2.2 of the U-FLI Rules and Regulations went into effect. You will find among the changes the addition of a new class of competition: Pre-Flight Singles Class is intended for dogs that are not yet ‘race ready’.

Pre-Flight was created to address the concerns of competitors who wanted a more competitive singles class. Too often, dogs were entered in singles who were not ‘race-ready’ and unable to race head-to-head against an opponent in the opposite lane.

Here is a summary of the rules and conditions governing Pre-Flight Singles:

• Dogs entered in this class will be in two races, four heats each.
• False starts will not be re-run.
• Times will not be recorded.
• No judges are required, however the participant may provide their own ‘judges’ if they desire.
• Gating and or props, of any kind will not be allowed.
• Participant with the competing dog, has the option of allowing another dog in the ring with its’ own handler.
• The warm-up time allowed will be the same as allowed for Singles and Pairs at the event.
• An overall time limit of 10 minutes, to run the 4 heats, for each race will apply.
• Both dogs must have a RUN and be of racing age.
• Handlers can release at any time.
• During a race, the dogs entered in this class may use one or both lanes as the participants choose.
• The competing dog may not be entered in any other class.
• Dogs entered in this class will not earn U-FLI points.
• This class of racing can be offered by the Host club before, during or after regular racing.
• Host club fees paid to U-FLI are based on Singles.
• All other racing rules apply.

My team took advantage of this new class at a tournament held in Michigan last month. None of us knew what to expect but, it turned out to be a very productive learning experience for both dogs and handlers. First, it helped tremendously to work with dogs who have “crossing over” issues. We had the opportunity to set up distractions in the true hyped up environment of a tournament in progress.

Second, dogs that we thought were not “race-ready” demonstrated to us that they could focus on their training and handler even with the distractions. It was delightful to have evidence that we could “up the ante” during training sessions with these dogs. Without Pre-Flight, these dogs would have continued to be held back during training. We also felt that certain dogs would’ve advanced much faster during training if Pre-Flight had been available during their earlier flyball training.

One final thought that we had as a result of trying out this new class is this: Pre-Flight offers a potentially effective tool to prevent dogs from “crossing over” by providing an opportunity for better proofing dogs in training. I think proofing dogs that cross for whatever reason (herding, chasing prey or just want to say “hi”) will create a safer flyball racing environment for everybody.

To review all of the rules, please download a copy of version 2.2 of the
“U-FLI Rules and Regulations” and the companion document “Summary of Changes” available here.

..........Chris

COMMENTS from the original post:

Linda,

I think this new class of racing is also good for dogs who may have competed already but perhaps had never been exposed to a really large tournament or who may have never traveled out of their own area to compete.
For example, one of our dogs (Sam) had already competed successfully in a team at a few tourneys in our home area. However, he had never raced in Singles which also happened to be a tourney we traveled to and it was much larger; literally by 10-fold. Lots more dogs, noise, distractions, etc. Needless to say, he was very distracted at this huge tourney and he did not do well in Singles that time.
The pre-flight scenario would have helped tremendously and made that outting successful.

Mike Keck,

At our (Hyper Flight) February tournament, we offered Pre-Flight. It was a big success. It’s good for the dogs (for all the reasons Chris mentioned), but it’s also good for new handlers. New handlers often lose interest before their dog is ever able to compete, but Pre-Flight allows them to get out in the lanes sooner but in a safe environment. We had people travel to our tournament that probably would not have attended if there was no Pre-Flight class.

Chris,

Thank you, Mike! I hadn’t thought about the “train new handlers” aspect.
I would also like to point out that all fees collected by the host club for offering Pre-Flight, stay with the host club. U-Fli does not benefit financially by offering the class at tournaments. The creation of the class simply allowed host clubs the ability to offer the class while a tournament was ongoing and permission to use the U-Fli lights under tournament conditions.
Seems there is a lot of benefit to the new class. Does anybody see any drawbacks?