Dogs jump the hurdles and step on a spring loaded flyball box that shoots out a tennis ball. The dog then catches the tennis ball and runs back over the four hurdles. When the dog crosses the starting line, the next dog on the team gets to go. The first team to have all four dogs run without errors wins the heat. Tournaments are organized in either a double elimination or round robin foramt.
Double elimination is usually best of three races or best of five races.
Round robin is the best three out of five races, and the first team to win three heats, receives 1 point towards their standing in the tournament. Flyballbox holds a tennis ballwhichejectswhenthedoghitsthepedal on the frontof the box. The object ofthegame is for each dogtogooverthefourhurdles,hit the box, catch theball, and return backoverthejumps as fastaspossible. Eachofthefour dogstakes a turn runningthe course andwhen allofthe dogs havepassedthefinishedlinewithnoerrors the team isfinished. The height of the hurdles depends on the height of the dogs on the team.