I got hooked on agility almost 20 years ago. In that time, I’ve competed both in the UK and internationally with Cockers Spaniels and Border Collies.

I started judging in 2007 and qualified as an UK Kennel Club Championship Judge in 2015.

I’ve had the joy and honour of judging the majority of the UK’s major finals, including The Kennel Club Agility Stakes Final and Crufts, and have been appointed as one of the 3 UK judges for the EOs in 2024.

My judging and course design takes global styles and themes into account. I like to see a real partnership between dogs and their handlers where they can demonstrate a diverse set of skills in order to negotiate courses with both speed and accuracy.

I’m delighted to be judging at the inaugural 1-TDC North American UKI invitational in Chicago and wish all competitors the best of luck.

To view a sample of Martin’s courses, click here.

I have had a lifelong love of dogs, which started as a child in the North of England with the family pet, Patch, a Jack Russell Terrier.

After finishing college I emigrated to the USA, where I have lived for the last 25+ years. In 2002, I decided the time was right to own a dog. After doing much research I settled on an obscure French herding breed, the Pyrenean Shepherd. I was mainly looking for a biddable hiking and running companion that I could train. Just before Thanksgiving 2002, Luka arrived on a Continental flight from Cleveland to San Francisco.

This dog changed my life forever. Luka was not a very confident or outgoing puppy, but she loved the training routine and this helped her confidence grow. After 1 year of obedience classes we discovered agility through some friends and started to take weekly agility classes. The rest, as they say, is history…

Together Luka and I competed for 9+ years and during that time we won numerous national championships. In 2009, Luka and I helped the USA Medium dog team take a silver medal at the FCI World Championships in Dornbirn, Austria. In 2011, Luka celebrated her 9th birthday by winning the individual gold medal competed at the FCI World Championships in Liévin, France. Luka is no longer with us, but I have competed more recently with my 2nd pyrenean shepherd, Dash and currently have a young border collie, Neve, in training.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife, Stacey and two children. I have been coaching agility since 2010 and am a co-owner of Golden Gate Dog Sports in San Francisco. I have been judging UKI events for the last 4 years. I enjoy designing flowing, fun courses that blend speed with handling challenges.

To view a sample of Ashley’s courses, click here.

By day, Shane is a mild-mannered Unified Communications Engineer, but by night he is an agility competitor, instructor, and judge. He has been competing in agility since 2009 when he started with his Rottweiler, Kalil, before moving to Belgian Malinois in 2011 which he and his wife now have 4 of.

Despite only competing in agility for a short amount of time, Shane has jammed a lifetime’s worth of experience as a competitor with his Malinois, Luna. They have a wealth of intentional experience for many different Team USAs over their 7 years of running together. In 2018, Shane wanted to experience the other side of agility competitions so he became a judge for UKI. He wanted to try and bring course designs that he had a ton of fun running in Europe to the USA where he felt there was limited opportunity to do so. So far it has been a whirlwind experience so far and he is glad he took the leap.

Shane is excited to judge the inaugural NAI where some of the best teams from the US and Europe will be running..

To view samples of Shanes courses,  click here.

I have been involved in dog agility since 1992, competing in national events here in the US since 1997 and competing internationally at various events around Europe and the UK since 2010. I attended the inaugural World Agility Open in 2011 and won the 55cm biathlon with my border collie Drifter.

I decided to become a judge for UKI in 2018, with my primary goal being to learn to craft the types of courses I wanted to run myself. Having experience previously judging for another organization, and competing overseas in multiple venues, I hope to use that knowledge to create large, fun, fast, yet challenging courses for competitors to test their skills on. My goal is that even if a competitor doesn’t run clean, they should walk off the course having enjoyed attempting to master it.

I very much look forward to judging at the inaugural North American Invitational!

To view a sample of Rosanne’s courses, click here.