Border den's

Winter Hooper Challenge 2026

Since it’s an unofficial competition, instead of running Kaïa at her official level H1, I chose to move her directly to H2 to see how she would manage.
H2 is also what we actually train at, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

The judge was Tamara Cuypers from Belgium.

When I looked at the course, I already knew it would be difficult. It was messy, and I failed to make her understand what I wanted.

The judge was Ari Valkhoff-Leclerq from the Netherlands.

This was more the kind of course we train on, just a little bigger. The judge took advantage of the large hall and created a course with a lot of distance. Even though we did not succeed, I think she did great, covering the distance happily.

The judge was Tamara Cuypers from Belgium.

Team course

This challenge also featured a team course. So Kaïa and Maïky teamed up to try to finish this very wide course. The farthest hoop was 18 m from the box. You can see both dogs struggling to cover the distance since they are not used to it yet. I’m still proud of them since they both actually closed the distance at some point.

Hooper training

She’s starting to understand and follow more complex lines and curves, and is doing more obstacles.

Hooper at Courcelle

The judge was Tamara Cuypers from Belgium.

First run was clean and faultless <3.

Second run, I failed. She missed the last hoop.
It’s entirely my fault. I changed hands and pointed straight at the wrong hoop. She just did what I asked.