How to Help People Addicted to Flyball

Flyball is a relay race for dogs started in the 1970s. It involves a team of four dogs where one dog runs through a straight course of four hurdles, jumps onto a spring loaded box that ejects a ball and then runs back to the beginning. The next dog in lines does the same. Like any other sport or activity, a person can become obsessed to the point that it interferes with their normal daily life. When a person suffers from flyball addiction, they may need treatment like any other addiction.

Instructions

• 1

  Identify the signs of a person suffering from addiction, such as avoiding a job or other responsibilities in order to play flyball. Other signs include putting in excessive hours playing the sport, obsessively training the dogs, possibly to the detriment of their health, and avoiding other activities for flyball.

• 2

  Make the person addicted to the game admit to having a problem, either through talking or a family intervention. A person with an addiction must want to get help if he is to get better. He has to admit to himself that the sport influences his life in a negative way.

• 3

  Visit a rehabilitation clinic or therapy service. Often an addiction is the result of a larger underlying problem. Flyball addiction could be a type of obsessive compulsive disorder that may been caused by an event which happened in early childhood. A trained professional can determine the exact cause of the addiction and suggest a course of treatment. It may take months or years to fully get over the addiction and discover its underlying cause.

• 4

  Prevent the individual from playing the sport or, at least, limit his involvement. If the sport is an addiction, then continuing to play it may hamper rehabilitation efforts. Provide support and reassurance throughout the recovery process and do not judge the person or deride him for an occasional slip back into the addiction.