About
Me - A Brief Bio
I grew up in Belgium where I went to the British School of Brussels. I then moved to the UK to go to Edinburgh University where I was awarded a first class MA. After a brief period living in Aberdeen doing proper jobs, the hobby I had started became my profession - I began training agility full time. At the end of 2013 I relocated from Aberdeen to Somerset in the south west of England. In 2015 Kim Loaring joined me and began training alongside me.
Me - As a Trainer
I am a positive agility trainer. I try to train you and your dog in a way that contributes to you both feeling encouraged and enthused. I am a big believer in the power of knowledge and understanding. I think that the better you understand the how and why of agility, the easier it is to develop as a trainer and handler, and to apply what you learn across varying sequences and situations. When I train, I try to explain as I go along why I'm asking you to perform a specific behaviour and how it benefits you and your dog to carry out the behaviour in the way described. Rather than having a rigid, preconfigured attitude; I relish the opportunity to problem-solve and am flexible according to the partnership I am working with.
I am constantly evolving and updating my training and handling - time does not stand still and neither does agility... Learning and gaining new knowledge is fun. I am continually learning to improve by working with my own dogs, by working with or watching other partnerships, and by listening to the methods of other trainers. Whenever I come across something I discover can improve my handling or the way I train my dogs, I try to build this into the training I provide to help others. I believe it is critical not to become complacent, or to do things solely because that is how I have always done them before... instead, I try always to be alert to the possibility of learning and developing.
I train a huge variety of partnerships and am passionate about helping each person and dog in a highly specific, individual way.
My Dogs and their Achievements
I currently own 6 dogs - Hayly, Ivy, Shelley, Chief, Lucky and Clyde. They will be with me for life. I love them first; and love doing agility with them second.
Some of their achievements include the following:
- Won 13 CCs (Championship Tickets) and 6 RCCs.
- Won the Crufts British Open Championship, as well as both the Jumping and Agility Qualifiers.
- Qualified for Olympia ABC Semis, 1st in Olympia Novice Semis, 2nd in Olympia Novice Semis, 2nd in Olympia Novice Final, qualified for Olympia Senior Semi-Final and Final multiple times.
- Won Scottish Dog of the Year and represented Scotland at Crufts in the International Agility & Jumping and Final, finishing 4th.
- Competed at the European Opens multiple times representing Great Britain, including as Team Captain.
- Competed at the World Agility Open multiple times representing Scotland and Great Britain. Won several individual events and won overall Bronze in the Biathlon at the World Agility Open.
- Qualified for the Crufts Championship class multiple times and received places including 1sts, 2nds and 3rds in the qualifiers; finishing 2nd (RCC) and 4th in the final.
- Qualified for Discover Dogs in the Mixi pairs several times.
- Competed at the IFCS European Agility Championships multiple times, winning a Silver and two Bronze medals.
- Competed at the International Mixed breed and Breed World Cup, IMCA, winning two Silver medals and a Bronze.
- Won the ProPlan Novice Final.
- Multiple 1sts and 2nds at the Kennel Club International Festival, including in the Nations Cup and British Open.
- Qualified for the British Open and Singles events at Crufts.
- Qualified for the Crufts Team event and finished 2nd with our team at Crufts.
- Won the Animal Health Classic Final.