Flyball Fanatics

Ros Taber’s first introduction to Flyball happened one Friday night in 2000 while she was walking her dog, Amy, through the Mt Gravatt showgrounds. It was there she saw Rosie Milton of Awesome Pawsome training flyball.

She instantly fell in love with the sport, joined the training and later went to a special seminar put on by some bloke from Canberra who turned out to be Steve Pitt. That seminar also taught Ros new techniques in training using positive reinforcement clickers.

Ros then sat down and wrote a 9 week flyball training programme for the RSPCA Animal Training and Behaviour Centre. By the end of 2000, she had a trial class of mostly instructors including Jan with Dash and Colleen with Monty. In January 2001, the first class for students was started and those early recruits include Ann with Buckley, Tina with Ton Ton, Betty with Finogan, Marietta with Nefesh (who went on to form Calamvet), Cathy with Molly, Julie with Sam, Keith with Lizzie (now at Awesome Pawsome), Jill with Rusty (RSPCA Call Centre), and Dianne with Misty (Doggy Mates) .

The Fanatics club was formed around late 2000 or early 2001, initially as an informal association with the RSPCA obedience school in order to participate in (and host) competitions. We hosted our first demonstration at the Million Paws Walk, Southbank in May 2001 which comprised of many dogs but not too many clean runs.

The first competition we entered was hosted by Awesome Pawsome at Logan Dog Obedience Club Grounds at Kingston in early 2001. We fielded two teams, the Fairfield Flying Fidos and the Fairfield Flyball Fanatics. By this stage we were managing some clean runs for each individual dog. A clean run for the whole team was a rare but rewarding thrill. The concept of working on times, passes and starts was not a part of the Fanatics repertoire at this stage.

Our second Competition was at Pine Rivers (Night at the Races) in November or 2001. Jane with Tasha and Kerenza with Grub had joined our team and Ros’s Maggie had her first race.

We hosted our first competition in April 2002 and were joined by Rebecca with Poppet. A team was also went to the Nationals in June 2002 where they learnt not only how to freeze, but also more advanced flyball skills like starting, passing, swimmers turns, seed times and the points system.

Meanwhile, Rachael Haines, another instructor at the RSPCA, was on maternity leave with Dillon in 2001 and returned around Sept 2002. Rachel quickly exhibited the required level of obsessiveness for flyball and became Ros’s partner in crime as the principle flyball instructors for the club.

The rest, as they say, is History.

In June 2005, the Flyball Fanatics became incorporated but we still remain affiliated with the RSPCA Animal Training and Behaviour Centre.

Ros Taber & Rachael Haines

Today, Ros shares the role of Animal Training and Behaviour Centre Manager with Nicola. Both Ros and Rachael are the only two trainers out of about 20 who continue to teach all 10 type of obedience courses for the RSPCA.

PS. Rachael (apparantly) has her own website, and an alternate career.