Inside the mind of flyball champions: 7 Lessons from the Roadrunners' Comeback at Crufts 2025

The lights dim. A thousand torches sway to “Sweet Caroline,” echoing through the Crufts main arena. It’s a ritual moment - one steeped in both energy and pressure. In the center ring, the Belgian team Roadrunners Beep Beep braces itself. Their past victories have proven their speed, but they remember last year all too well when this exact moment, this very song, distracted one dog and cost them the win.

Flyball is a relay sprint for dogs. Four hurdles, a trigger box, a retrieved ball, and a nose-to-nose pass. Four dogs, perfect synchronicity. The margin between glory and defeat is measured in fractions of seconds. With four European titles, two FCI World Cup wins, a world record of 14.07 seconds, and now a third Crufts victory, the Roadrunners are setting the bar high.

But in the 2025 final, their first heat crumbled with errors: dropped balls, bad start, missed timing. Most teams wouldn’t recover. The Roadrunners did.

What does it take to win when everything seems lost?

We spoke with Dave Maris, Roadrunners captain, to uncover seven powerful lessons behind their legendary comeback.

#1 Composure wins under pressure

It’s one thing to win when everything goes right. It’s another to hold your ground when everything falls apart. That’s what sets champions apart.

“The mistakes piled up in the first heat, the starting dog goes through the start a little bit later and we are behind, the starting dog misplaces himself on the box where Drogon, the starting dog, is almost flawless. One of our fastest dogs, Kyon, makes a mistake by spitting his ball too early, followed by another spitting ball from Memphis, the obligatory pedigree dog that has to run every race.”

Most teams would lose momentum at that point. But the Roadrunners didn’t flinch.

“It seemed to slip out of our hands again for a moment, but winning under this pressure is the best feeling ever.”

Lesson learned: pressure doesn't break champions - it reveals them.

#2 Strategy beats speed when it counts

Going into the final with your fastest lineup might seem like the obvious choice. But when one of those dogs isn’t performing, instinct alone isn’t enough.

“A drastic decision was necessary to exchange Kyon for Kookachoo, who was allowed to race again for the first time after maternity leave. We opted for a reduced number of mistakes at the expense of speed. […] At that moment, the experience we have in such competitions shows itself.”

Knowing when to change the plan and having the courage to do it is part of what sets seasoned teams apart.

#3 Fall, Reflect, Rise

Being first on paper doesn’t mean that victory is at the end of the line. Dave reflects on the previous year: “I should have shown Sepp where the location of the flyball box and the ball was after Sweet Caroline, and undoubtedly he would have been back in the race.”

“When you work with dogs you know that it won't always go as you hope, but chin up.“

What matters after this type of event is how one reflects on it, and uses that lesson to come back stronger. 

“Work hard and train hard and then come back to do your best”.

And it paid off.

#4 Drive Is Nothing Without Control

All dog breeds and mix-breeds can play Flyball. While most are trained with obedience followed by reward, Dave reveals that working with whippets and sighthounds' prey drive rather than traditional methods gives them a strategic edge.

“The sighthounds or crossbreeds with a lot of sighthound character are not the easiest dogs to train in flyball. […] Because we know how to train whippets well, we naturally have a strategic advantage because at Crufts flyball it is mandatory to have one purebred dog running. In our case, that is a lightning fast whippet that leaves every other purebred dog far behind.”

#5 Familiarity builds confidence

Details win titles. And when you’ve already won multiple, you don’t leave anything to chance. Here are three ways the Belgian team works to the core for Crufts:

1. Train as a team: “Different combinations of dogs are practiced so that the changes are tight and the dogs get used to each other because we expect them to be able to cross nose to nose at full speed.”
2. Surface training: “We prepare by training on the same surface as at Crufts, jutagrass combined with tuffspun matting because we normally always train and compete on grass.”
3. Work on individual challenges, “for example tight and fast turning on the box or releasing the ball too early”.

#6 Train as an athlete

Flyball is a well-rounded dog sport, conditioning strength, endurance, agility, and mental focus. They sprint, leap, spin, grab, and react in rapid succession.

“In order to keep the dogs fit and injury-free, it is necessary that we are still intensively involved with our dogs outside of flyball. We focus on canicross, bikejoring, hiking, and frisbee on a non-tournament level.”

Dave insists on using gear that supports this level of drive, safety, and precision. All their team dogs use the Rock collar:

“It all comes to this moment where the handler releases his buddy at the right time to have an almost perfect nose-to-nose pass. The timing must be perfect, and that’s when the semi-slip function comes in handy and guarantees a fast release of the dog without the hand or some fingers getting stuck in the collar when the dog starts sprinting.”

The Move leash is also one of the team’s favourites:

“When the dogs know it is racing time, they will pull with all the power they have. The twistlock carabiners are strong and guarantee that the dog stays on the leash. We never experienced a broken twistlock carabiner during the pulling of the dogs.”

#7 In the End, It’s All About the Bond

This might be the most important lesson: Have fun.

Have fun with your dog. Have fun with your friends. Have fun as a team. The Flyball community has a unique way of building friendships and bringing smiles, with dogs and their partners fulfilled and happy.

“In the end we only race for a plastic cup and a moment of fame. The friendship between the handler and his buddy is the most important and at the same time the road to success.”

The Road Ahead

While still riding the wave of their success, the Roadrunners Beep Beep team is not ready to stop breaking boundaries just yet. Shaving milliseconds one by one, Dave reveals their next ambitious goal:
“We have set our mind to do what no team has done before, the unicorn of flyball, and it is to set a 13-second heat.”

Follow them on Instagram to find out when they will make history: @roadrunners_flyball

 

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