FLYBALL NEWS!
Announcing Milwaukee Dogs'
"Grey Balls of Fur"

You'd never know it by their enthusiasm or the times they post but the "Grey Balls of Fur", are considered Veterans by the North American Flyball Association (NAFA). The Grey Balls of Fur, the newest addition to Milwaukee Dog's Flyball line-up, made their debut in the Veteran's Division at the Paw Power Blues Flyball Tournament in Hammond, Indiana in November. They may be a little long in the tooth and sporting grey chins but with a personal best time of 21.005 seconds they took second place on Saturday and First Place on Sunday.

Racing on the inaugural team were two of Milwaukee Dogs founding team dogs, Whim (10 year old Border Collie handled by Marnie Hammerle) and Madison (9 year old Labrador Retriever handled by Sarah Willems) as well as Disney (8 year old German Shepherd Dog handled by Mary Pavleje), Betzi (9 year old Vizsla handled by Evan Emmons), Sonja 7 year old German Shepherd Dog handled by Kim Novotny) and Rosie (8 year old Labrador Retriever handled by Kira Haslam).

The Veterans Division was added to NAFA Tournaments just a few years ago.  All dogs on a Veterans team must be 7 years of age or older.  The racing requirements for Veteran dogs are a little less rigorous than other divisions as they jump 7 inches (regardless of the size of the dogs) and run a maximum of 16 heats per day. 

MDTC Flyball

Milwaukee Dog's Flyball is a division of the Milwaukee Dog Training Club (MDTC). All members of ourflyball team are also members of MDTC, and the training requirements held by the club apply to its flyball division. Our flyball teams compete monthly (approximately) in both NAFA and U-FLI tournaments, and practice weekly (view calendar) at the new club building on St. Paul. We also do demonstrations for various community and dog-related events.

Our training is led by volunteer instructors with team captains chosen for each tournament. We offer beginning, intermediate and tournament-ready level training for all dogs that show enthusiasm and tolerance for the exciting sport of flyball. Our main objective is to have fun while training our dogs and to enjoy and participate fully in the team aspect of the sport of flyball. Stop by any time to watch practice, meet the team and ask questions.

Our Teams
Our teams' rosters change depending on the tournament and dogs that are participating, but generally we place handlers of dogs with the most experience in Great Balls of Fur and handlers of dogs that have less experience in All Fur'd Up.

	Great Balls of Fur In March 2001, MDTC registered our first flyball team "Great Balls of Fur" (GBOF) in region 4 of the North American Flyball Association (NAFA). GBOF's first competition was in June of 2001 in Rockford, IL.
	All Fur'd Up Our team grew considerably after launching GBOF, so in August of 2002 we launched a second team called "All Fur’d Up" (AFU) and made our debut at a Hit Squad tournament in Madison, WI.

More Information On Flyball Classes

Please email us at flyball@milwaukeedog.com for more information on visiting one of our flyball practices, for demonstration requests, or to join a beginner's flyball class. MDTC starts just one beginner class a year in early November Please watch this site in September for announcements about signing up online and try outs.
 

TEDDY (ball of fur in the foreground) Boxloader - Mark	vs.	FINNEY (dark blur in the background) Boxloader - Sally