Judges

Hi, I am Jeremy! Ever since I started agility as a kid, it had always been a dream of me to one day be able to stand on the green carpet… But never would I have expected to stand there not as a competitor, but as a judge. I cannot express enough gratitude to the opportunity that has been given to me. Maybe cliché but to be nominated as one of the judges of an AWC is, for me, one of the greatest honours there is in a judging career. A career that is still so early, and maybe I still have a lot to prove, but I for sure will do my damn best to make whole 2024 a great success!

My agility story starts as a young boy who tagged along with his mother to her weekly dog school training on Sunday with our first dog Nara, a mixed breed who we adopted from the animal shelter. After discovering agility and taking a liking to this special hobby, my mom and Nara started competing at a recreational level. It was there that she noticed the great amount of Border Collies and fell in love with the breed. A few years later we had our first Border Collie, Meadow. She was supposed to be my mom’s training partner, but as a means of trying to get the teenage me outside of the house in the weekends, I had to follow the occasional training with Meadow. After getting our agility license in 2009 and playing our first competition, I was immediately sold, which lead to me basically “stealing” the dog who was meant for my mom… Oops!

Years later in 2013, my very first own boy River was born. As easy going and calm as Meadow was, so intense was River. Every training and competition was a challenge on its own, all or nothing. Often it did not go well, but the moments it did, were extremely rewarding and made me never give up. Unfortunately due to injury, River had to retire from agility at the age of 7, but currently still enjoys his days herding sheep.

In 2020 I welcomed my second boy, Ven, into our family. A young, wild and smart little thing with a huge heart. We got our agility license in 2022. Our story is still to be told, but I am looking forward to writing it together!

During my years competing, I developed a passion for drawing courses and was always happy when I got the opportunity to place one of my creations on the training field. I loved seeing how clubmates and their dogs ran them, which made me want to go further. In 2019, I became a national judge in Belgium at the age of 25, and international FCI judge in 2021. Drawing courses has since been one of my favourite pastimes, with the culmination being able to build these courses at competitions and watch teams exploring them, all day long. And now, just a few years later being given the opportunity to place those courses on the biggest stage is like a dream come true. I am looking forward to AWC and the road towards it, which has given me a lot of unique and amazing judging opportunities. I hope to see a lot of you along this road and otherwise, see you at AWC 2024!

I’m René Blank, agility addicted since the late 90’ies of the last century.

Starting in 1997 with my mixed breed dog Arco, me and my wife Sibylle travelled already back then across Germany and Europe to dive deeper into this wonderful sport. When being asked to become a judge in 2004 I did not hesitate and we decided to take also this perspective to the sport.

In 2006 my first Border Collie Rae (Ebony Raven Granting Pleasure) opened my horizon even more, followed by her niece Q (Kikki Granting Pleasure) in 2014. Judging a few years I discovered that I enjoyed designing courses and sequences at least as much as to run my dogs. That was probably the time when I was triggered to make my courses suitable for any dog/handler combination, got nitpicking about angles and lines and did more and more analysis. I do absolutely get excited to see different and creative solutions in my courses – perfectly timed to the skills of the dogs and their handlers and balanced between fast and technical parts. For this feeling also from the handler’s side I will definitely return into the ring with my new young dog Padme (Austrian Starlight).

I feel truly honoured being voted for judging this year’s AWC at this super location! It makes me happy to see so many friends and well-known top handlers. I wish all of you – besides the cheering, laughing, crying – wonderful days here at Sentower Park with those who are here for: your adored 4legged companions! All the best and may the force be with you!

I started agility in 2004 with my first dog Chen, a tervuren shepherd. I started my judge education after a knee fracture caused by my crazy tervuren who took the fun part of agility a little bit to literally.

After my crazy Belgians I ran a miniature pinsher and now also the sheltie and border collies took already big place in our hearts.

In 2015 I became FCI judge.  During those years I got the opportunity to judge at amazing places. After been invited to judge EO in Belgium, I am again very honoured to be chosen as national judge for the AWC. The atmosphere of these events is indescribable and gives me goosebumps!

When designing a course I try to create fluent and fair lines for the dogs and some technical points to let the handlers think about the best lines and challenge them to combine speed and timing . I love watching teams attacking the course and enjoying every second of their run.

Looking forward to see all those happy, enthousiastic faces and wagging tails.

“Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun.” ― Randy Pausch