Judges

Nikolas Koch, Germany

 

Hello, my name is Nick Koch and I live with my wife Melly in the southwestern part of Germany. At this time we have 5 dogs. My working dogs are:

Quila, Malinois female, IPO 3 retired, Tracking

Derrick, Malinois male, IPO 3

I started training dogs in my childhood, and after a break I started doing agility around year 2000.

Over the years I have handled small, medium und large sized dogs, participated on national German Championships, and AWC tryouts in medium and large. Our biggest success was the victory at German Championship 2011 in medium with Arisa.

Nowadays I don‘t run Agility anymore, but judging brings me a lot of fun, since over 10 years.

I like to build fast courses, where the handler and the dog need to be well educated, to run it clean.

Jordi Boix Baró, Spain

 

„I’m Jordi, I started doing Agility when I was 7 years old. During these 24 years, I have been competing in different countries with my three dogs: two medium and one large, representing Spain seven times in AWC and six times in EO.

I just love Agility: it is my passion and part of my life. This sport made me what I am now, and it brought me love back after meeting my partner and best friends around the world.

I am hooked on competing and training, but analyzing every line and every move is my addiction. That’s why ten years ago I decided to become a judge. I started my career in the UK and, three years later, I became a judge also in Spain. During these years, I have been judging in most of European countries, FCI competitions, tryouts and Opens.

As a judge and a trainer, I try to design challenging and fluent coursers where handlers and dogs can perform it at top speed, in the safest possible way.

As a judge, my aim is to be part of the evolution of Agility, improving the sport to make it more competitive, spectacular, faster and safer for handlers and dogs.

Agility is about dreams, love and passion. But, for me, the best part is after the last jump, where the happy faces of dog and handler meets.

Biggest events:
Polish open - 2024
Alpine open - 2024
German Border Collie Championship - 2024
Janakkala Open -2024
Mexico National Cup -2023
Sweden AWC/EO tryouts - 2023
Gåsahoppet Open - 2023
Italy AWC/EO tryouts (S/M) - 2023
Italy AWC/EO tryouts (L) - 2023
Italy WAO tryouts - 2023“

Roman Lukac, Slovakia

 

“Hello, my name is Roman Lukac and I come from Slovakia. I’ve been running agility for around 25 years with all categories of dogs and been multiple times in Slovak national team at AWC and EO. Nowadays I’m competing with my Border Collie Metaxa and this year we will represent Slovakia at AWC for the 3rd year in a row ?

Judging is my passion for last 12 years and next year one of my judging dream comes true and I will be judging European Open in Portugal ? My goal in designing the courses is to get balance between speed&technique, testing various skills and giving handlers opportunity to choose different handling option.

Janakkala Open will be my first time judging in Finland and I’m really looking forward to this amazing agility event, see you there soon ?”

Mona Liljegren, Finland

 

”Hello
I’m Mona Liljegren from Hikiä, Finland, and I’ve had my judging card in my back pocket for only 1,5 years. I started agility in 2005. Agility training with dogs is my passion and I enjoy especially perfecting the small details. My competition partner at the moment is a Spanish Water Dog Elviira competing in medi3. I like fast-paced courses with good and safe lines for the dogs and where you can choose from multiple ways to perform and handling options. This is the kind of course I try to design myself, hopefully succesfully. I admire teams who have a seamless connection on the course and their good vibe is transmitted right to the edge of the field.

Enjoy the moment and give it your all, just like your competition partner does.
-Mona-”

Marko Mäkelä, Finland

 


“I am Marko Mäkelä from Finland. I’ve been competing in agility since 1995, with various breeds - Shelties, Border Collies, Spanish Water Dogs etc.

At the moment my full time job is teaching and coaching agility with under my company Ykslysti. I do it besides Finland also in other countries. I have now been a judge since the end of 2017. And I feel truly honored being invited to judge already so many cool competitions both in Finland and internationally.

I like to run challenging courses with speedy lines and hopefully with some possibilities to have variations both in dogs’ lines and handling options. And of course, that’s also my goal when I’m designing courses as a judge - to have a course with speed, a proper amount of challenge for the level of class, safe lines, options/variations for handling and dogs’ lines.

I always enjoy seeing dogs and handlers having fun on the courses I judge and teach! It keeps me going on - the joy and fun of agility!

See you in Janakkala Open in August, can’t wait!”