I didn’t expect to be able to run this competition — Kaïa was supposed to be pregnant by now. But Mother Nature gave me some extra time, and I’m glad I didn’t cancel.

21/06/2025

The judge was Philip Müller-Schnick from Germany.

We kicked off the competition by successfully finishing this challenging course. We ended up in second place with 3 faults.

Disqualified on the jumping course — but so was everyone else in Intermediate.

22/06/2025

The judge was Mark Fonteijn from the Netherlands.

I failed to properly control the tunnel entry. She made a few mistakes, but she understood the right turn after the weave pole. She hesitated a little, but did it correctly in the end.

She handled every “out” on this course really well. I helped her a lot, but they all went smoothly. Unfortunately, we got disqualified because I didn’t control her properly again, and she took the wrong tunnel.

The judge was Fons Van den Bosch from Belgium.

This was our second time in grade 3. I didn’t expect much, and that’s about how it went. Some exercises were good, others didn’t go well at all. We definitely need more training.

Sitting in a group for 2 minutes, handlers out of sight. Lying in a group for 1 minute, and recall

Poor Kaïa in the rain. Since she was in heat, I had to do the exercise alone (no other females in grade 3). She was confused about being left on her own and ended up lying down. It wasn’t a great experience, but I’m glad she stayed ‘calm’ and didn’t walk off.

Heelwork

Heelwork was never our strong exercise, and for some reason, she did the backward walk wrong.

Recall with sit and stand

Beside the tempo changes, this is a good exercise. She could stop faster for the “stand”.

Send away with directions, down and recall

Kaïa doesn’t really understand the concept of going forward to nowhere. This is a recurring issue, she’s searching for something to go to.

Directed retrieve

I’m a bit lucky, she goes forward to the left, where she needs to pick the dumbbell. If it was the right one, I would probably had trouble to make it happen.

Send around cones, stop, retrieve and jump

She was focused on the last dumbbell and didn’t see the cone. I should have prepared her better before the exercise and make her search for the cone first.

Scent discrimination and retrieve

This exercise was nearly perfect. She scans, found the good one, pick it up, and came back. A little tempo when she comes back, but that all.

Distance control

She moved forward a bit, otherwise, good exercise.

This is our second time at Canis, it’s even bigger than last year: 5 rings instead of 4 and 650 dogs.

We didn’t do a great job—plenty of things went off track. I often missed better ways to handle stuff and didn’t always see where the real challenges were.

29/05/2025

The judge was Becci Hodson from UK.

Disqualified on the first out, we failed to handle the weave pole and the long jump.

The judge was Thora Van Der Stock from Belgium.

A fun and fast course that we definitely could’ve handled better. I got a bit greedy at the weave poles. I should’ve just taken my time and let Kaïa finish properly. No need to rush it.

30/05/2025

Training with Mark Fonteijn.

Learning new techniques and trying out different approaches is always fun. This was super helpful, and I’m hoping to turn it into something I can actually use in competitions once I’ve mastered it.

31/05/2025

The judge was Ivan Amez Alvarez from Spain.

A great and fast course that we could handle way better. I got greedy at the weave pole when I could take my time and let Kaïa finish the weave pole, there was no need to rush it.

The judge was Tom Elsen from Belgium.

She was just not listening. I recall her multiple times, and she ignored me twice. I had to act at some point and show that it was not ok.
I also realize that my calls were really weak and not the usual ones. But still, if I use her name, she should come to me.

01/05/2025

Agility on Mark Fonteijn course could not be filmed, I was not aware that I suddenly moved to be the first dog to run. My camera was not ready, I was not ready…

The judge was Saskia Vansteelant from Belgium.

Nice jumping overall. I tried to fix a good weave entry and ended up confusing her a bit, but aside from that, she did great. I was happy to finish the competition on something that wasn’t a total mess. She did skip a jump and went straight for the tunnel but that one’s on me.