MEET THE TEAM
The human simply acts like an on course navigator for the high speed dog. It takes tons of practice,
a great relationship and fantastic course handling to rise to the top.
THE COACHES
It's the coaches that provide guidance and new learning. They encourage Amanda and her dogs to
push beyond their comfort zone while maintaining safety for the dog as the #1 priority. Amanda
highly values her coaches, their expertise and their continued impact on her agility journey.
SANDRA BOURNE
Sandra is an accomplished Canadian agility athlete and dog trainer. She's won both local, regional and national competitions with numerous dogs over their careers, including representing Canada at the international level.
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Amanda is fortunate enough to call Sandra her main agility coach. Through Sandra's wonderful guidance on both her handling and dog training, she's come from knowing nothing about agility to an up and coming agility competitor.
ALEN MARECOVIK
With the exception of 1996, Alen is a member of the Croatian National Agility Team since 1993 and team coach since 1997. He's been a member of KOSSP "Zagreb" for over 20yrs and a chairman from 2000-2005. He's also President of the Croatian Kennel Club's Agility Committee and Croatian delegate in FCI Agility Committee. He actively holds seminars, competes and judges around the world including Europe, South Africa, Central America, Asia and more. Among his many accomplishments he's won a Croatian National Championship and placed top 12 in an individual competition at the European Agility Championships.
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Amanda attended several of Alen's seminars in Canada and they continue to follow each others agility progression. As North American and European handling styles and courses are very different, it's been a tremendous learning opportunity and area of growth for Amanda to experience Alen's coaching.
POLONA BONAČ
Polona is a member of Slovenia's national team every year since approx 2016 competing at the international level all over Europe. She's achieved great success in 3 different height categories winning several medals at the European Open including gold in 2007, silver in 2014, 2012, 2011, 2007 & 2006. Not only does she compete in and train agility, Polona's also an obedience trainer and a licensed IPO Helper. She and her dogs have fun in agility, IPO, rally obedience, frisbee, herding, tricks and search area.
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Amanda attended some of Polona's seminars in Canada and enjoyed the teachings her versatile and accomplished background brings to her students. Her seminars continue to build on Amanda's increased understanding of European handling styles.
DAVE MUNNINGS
Dave is an experienced extraordinary success in agility. He's a regular member of Great Britain's national team, multi-time world medalist, and was the first handler in the world to own and train four large dogs to U.K Agility Championship status. Some of his accomplishments include FCI World Championship bronze medalist 2005 and silver in 2010, EO Championship gold medalist 2009 & 2010, EO Team Silver Medalist 2017, AWC bronze medalist 2018, as well as a regular competitor at Crufts and Olympia. In addition to his success as a competitor, Dave was also a Great Britain team coach in 2011.
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Having established a reputation as an inspirational, patient and effective trainer, Dave trains throughout the world including Europe, Australia, Brazil, Canada, USA and more. Amanda had the opportunity to learn from Dave first hand in Canada. His use of both operant and classical conditioning with positive reinforcement furthered her agility training and understanding of European & World Champion handling.
JESS MARTIN
Jess is a five time National Agility Champion (with three different dogs) and 2010 AWC World Champion. With over 18 years of of dog training experience, Jess specializes in training from a perspective of emotional balance in sport dogs to enhance the the dog-handler relationship and improve performance.
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Amanda had the opportunity to train with Jess in person as well as learn from her online workshops.
PATRICK BLASLAND
Patrick has competed in sports at a high level his entire life including being recruited for varsity level basketball and lacrosse in the USA. He choose to play lacrosse for Rutgers. During his time on the team they where ranked top 10 in the USA. His experiences there with a world class personal trainer and training with the football team created a unique understanding of athletic mechanics and discipline that he attributes to his success in agility. Patrick's been a member of the USA agility team competing internationally since approx 2015.
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Amanda took part in Patrick's course dedicated to strengthening the human running mechanics in her team. It was a fantastic learning opportunity where focus was placed on building muscle memory in the human individual to increase agility team results. This was a fantastic opportunity that bridged the gap between Amanda's previous agility training and her competitive athletic background. It changed her understanding and view of agility training and allowed her to pull previous coaching and learning from her days of competitive figure skating and apply it to agility.
SARAH MAIRS
Sarah is a long time dog trainer and competitor in obedience, flyball, and agility. She's an accomplished Canadian agility athlete, trainer, and judge. Having been a member of Canada's national agility team, she's competed in Europe at world-level events. As a judge, Sarah travels across Canada and Europe while maintaining worldwide online training classes.
Amanda has made huge gains with Sarah's unique distraction and life skill guidance with her dogs. Sarah's commitment to the betterment of agility in Canada and bringing together like-minded individuals in the pursuit of a competitive, fun and educational atmosphere keeps Amanda engaged and coming back for her unique coaching style.
AARON FROUDE
Aaron is an accomplished Canadian athlete and trainer. He was a WAO Canadian team coach in 2018 and 2019.
His coaching style reminds Amanda how to get the most out of her dogs through sticking to their strengths and setting the best lines to bring that out. Amanda learned a lot while attending Aaron's seminars and enjoyed the fun, positive and inspiring atmosphere he creates.
CHRIS KROL
Chris was a 2010 IFCS bronze medalist and represented Canada at 2010 IFCS, 2010 WAC, 2017 and 2018 EO. She has a passion for jump grid training and teaching handlers how to get the most of of their dog's stride.
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With jumps being the bulk of an agility course, Amanda saw the importance of learning in a Chris Krol jump grid seminar. Amanda learned how to teach her dogs to jump efficiently and safely.
