Team Sports for Furry Friends
By Chelsea Chambers
After fifty years of living in Alaska, Jody Metcalf made her way to Eagle, Idaho to be closer to family and explore new terrains. With the beauty of Idaho’s great outdoors, she has found herself quite at home here in the Gem State. She brought many things with her from Alaska, but one of the most pinnacle being: her love of Flyball.
“I’ve played Flyball since 2005 with my heart dog, Rosie, in Alaska and around the country and in Canada,” Jody explained. “After Rosie passed in 2020, I knew that she taught me a lot of things – one of those things was having so much fun playing Flyball!”
Flyball is a team sport game played with dogs and their owners. Essentially, it is a timed relay race (measured to the 1000th of a second) where each dog takes a turn running and jumping over hurdles, activating the Flyball box, catching the relased ball, and returning over the hurdles. The first team to have all four of their dogs cross the finish line without mistakes wins that heat. Typically, winners are crowned best 3 out of 5 rounds.
While volunteering for dog rescue company, Herd You Need A Home, Jody found herself fostering a fear-aggressive dog that required a lot of love and training. “We needed to keep her mentally and physically active so what better reason to start playing Flyball again?”
But Jody quickly found out, that at the time, Idaho had not one single Flyball team, despite being a state filled with dog lovers. And thus, Boise FlyDogs was born!
“It’s fast, it’s fun, and it’s exciting! I want people to know that you finally have options in Idaho with different ways to play with your dogs. It’s called Flyball! It’s a race that can be played with any breed of dog or any age of person, as long as you can play safely. Boise FlyDogs motto is ‘All Breeds, All Speeds’ are welcome to play. It’s also a great family sport!”
Jody and Boise FlyDogs are excited to announce that their website is now up and running, making it even easier to see if Flyball is right for you and your furry friends! You can book a free evaluation, sign up for lessons, and join their club. And if that wasn’t enough to entice you, you can also meet the Boise FlyDogs, current and retired. Yes, that means plenty of adorable dog pictures!
“Let’s show the rest of the U.S. that Idaho can play this sport just as well as the other states!” Jody said, excitedly. “We have to start somewhere, and now is the time to learn and build the foundation for Flyball in the state of Idaho!”
If you are interested in learning more about Flyball, visit their website at boiseflydogs.com or check them out on Facebook @boiseflydogs.
