Who Are Tails-We-Win and What is Flyball?

You will likely fall into one of the following three groups:

• You don’t have a scooby doo what Flyball is!

• You have seen a variation of it showcased at the world’s biggest dog event - Crufts!

• You play it yourself.

For those reading who find themselves in Group 1 or perhaps even Group 2; Flyball is an exhilarating, competitive but fun team dog sport. Specifically, a four dog relay race against a team of another four dogs. The sport is aided by state-of-the-art timing equipment, sensors, and race lights.

The aim of the sport is for the first dog to be released from a specific marker so they break the sensor beam as soon as the light turns green, running over a set of four jumps (the height of which is determined by the height of the smallest dog on the team). They then retrieve a tennis ball from a specially designed ‘Flyball Box’ whilst demonstrating what we call, a ‘Flyball Box Turn’, before coming back over those same four jumps, and bringing the ball to their ‘handler’. As the first dog is on course back, the second dog is released with the aim of both dogs meeting in the sensor gates, to prevent as much time being lost as possible- remembering, this is a race!

The process is repeated until all four dogs have completed the course and the first time to complete without a fault, wins.

Faults can be awarded by being ‘early’ (which means breaking the sensor beam before the green light, or before the previous dog has exited), dropping the ball before the finish line, or missing a jump.

There is a team of judges who support the main judge in ensuring racing is fair and accurate.

Tails We Win were founded 12 years ago by Joe Lamont and lifelong friend, Helen Welch. The team was started as we wanted more from the sport. As our knowledge grew and our techniques evolved, Helen and I wanted to ensure we were giving our dogs the absolute best when it came to our flyball training.

It’s now 2022, and as things currently stand, Tails We Win are the fastest team ever recorded in Europe, running 4 dogs over a collective 408 feet, 32 jumps, in FOURTEEN POINT FIVE THREE SECONDS! It likely took you longer to read that sentence.

It’s an incredible feat that we are very proud of. We have been holders of the European Record, almost consecutively, for the past four years.

2022 is a year of firsts for us. This year was the first year we have ever competed at Crufts! It was an incredible experience and one we are very much looking forward to repeating next year. If you managed to catch us on Channel 4, we went out in dramatic style as despite being the faster team, our Flyball Box malfunctioned, and we were sadly eliminated. Next year presents a new opportunity to right that wrong.

We are now preparing for the Flyball World Championships, chosen by our Country and League, held in Belgium during May. Another first, but again we are exceptionally excited for our first World Champs experience. We like to consider ourselves as having the finest canines, the greatest trainer & best facilities.

Success, regardless of whether you are a human or dog, has one singular foundation: Nutrition. If your nutrition is strong, then you have solid groundwork to build from, applying everything else to deliver your goals. Therefore, we feed all our dogs Paleo Ridge (and we have a lot of dogs!) – now don’t be mistaken, Paleo Ridge isn’t reserved merely for our speedsters. Our retirees feed on Paleo Ridge and our puppies are weaned on it. This is because, irrespective of anything else, as owners the onus is on us to ensure our furry friends are fed a nutritionally rich, complete, wholesome diet, and not the garbage that can get so much media attention.

Don't just take our word for it, check out our latest record run in the video below 👇🏻

Make sure to check in with us next month!

In the meantime, check us out:

Facebook: @TailsWeWin

Instagram: @tails_we_win_flyball_teams

Tiktok: @tww_flyball_team