Katniss

Personally, I have been competing in flyball for just over 18 years. I used to do agility as well, but two sports were just too much.

Katniss is my 2-year-old Border-Whippet, and she has been racing coming up to a year. Towards the end of last year, we started learning whippet racing to get her to stretch out and run as fast as she could… so back to two sports again, LOL!

There are so many! She is homebred under our team RKC ELVERSHIRE affix from my own Border Collie to a pedigree racing whippet, so I would say watching her being born is probably right up there!

To breed your own dog, train your own dog in your own flyball team and have that dog selected for the world cup that your own team is hosting…. Yeah, that's pretty special too!

Since her debut in March 2025, Katniss has raced as part of the second team in my flyball club - Cambridgeshire Flyball - setting their jump heights to 9".

She has helped them take divisional wins here in the UK as well as being part of one of our teams at the European Championships held last August in Belgium.

More recently she has been selected as the reserve dog on our Crufts 2026 team and as a racing member of our World Cup team. She holds a PB of 3.65s running over her own height and has won division 1 as part of our Crufts lineup on multiple occasions.

As a flyball club we had an incredible 2025, with our first team taking the British Record last May with a time of 14.21s as well as coming 2nd at both the British and European championships and our Crufts team becoming reserve Crufts champions.

We have qualified for Crufts 2026 and this year we are hosting the Flyball Open World Cup in Norwich, of which Antinol is one of our incredible sponsors!

I started agility with my parents' dogs way back in the 1990s as I wasn't allowed a horse and the next best thing was jumping my dogs instead! I did YKC (when it was KCJO) and had a go at flyball but there were no flyball teams around.

I competed in agility for many years but still really wanted to have a proper go at flyball. In 2007 I finally convinced my agility club to let me buy some kit and have a go at this sport together… I mean, how hard could it be, it's "just glorified fetch"!? How wrong was I!?

Cambridgeshire Canines debuted a team in March 2008, running over full height we managed a best time of about 24.5s. Flyball filled the void in my life that agility left, having fun with my dog and my friends at the same time.

Over time we attended seminars, visited other teams, expanded our club and knocked our team record down bit by bit. Flyball is an incredible sport, not just for the amazing time that you spend with your dog, but the team aspect… your teammates are absolutely like your family. We train together, compete together and socialise together.

I absolutely love learning new things about dogs, flyball and training and even after 18 years of competing in this sport I am still learning and adapting how we train (I still feel like the new kid on the block!) However, I am now the one providing the workshops and seminars – I've even been invited to teach in Canada next year!

We are setting British records and placing highly in top level events. We are currently ranked 4th fastest team ever in the world!

A few years ago, we decided to use my expert canine genetics knowledge to set up our own breeding program, and Katniss was born in our first ever litter. Her, and her brother who is in our team, are the start of our next generation of dogs, pushing the boundaries of the sport and maybe help take our team down into the 13s bracket.

With any top-level sport, it's not just about the training but everything else. However, with the stresses, strains and repetitive nature of our sport, proper joint support is crucial. Katniss and I are very excited to be on this journey working as Antinol athletes.