Marko Mäkelä is a Finnish judge, agility coach, competitor and team manager of WAO Finland. When something agility related happens, you can also find Marko there. So, obviously he was also in Turku for the Agility World Championship 2019. We wanted to ask this world traveller about his views on AWC 2019.

Diversity important for agility

Diversity is a word that comes up regularly when Marko talks about the event: “There were different handling styles, different dogs, different handlers and even the courses of the two judges Sari Mikkilä and Oba Toshiyuki were very different from each other but both allowed different handling options. Because of this diversity, it was fun to watch the runs and many times I even got surprised by the handling choices. It’s good that there isn’t only one way to perform at the very top in agility. Every partnership is different and everyone needs to use their own strengths and not copy others. Handlers should trust themselves and do things their own way.”

Sari Mikkilä’s final course for large individual offered many options for handlers

Marko says that all courses were interesting but the most inspiring course was Sari Mikkilä’s final agility course for large individual: “It was brilliant and fun. And fast, just like Sari herself ;) It offered challenge and possibilities for different handling options. Some handled the dogs from behind and some from ahead. The current trend is to handle from ahead; the handler no longer runs the same path as the dog, but, instead, the dog is sent from a distance to an obstacle after which the handler gets ahead of the dog on time to be at the point where s/he can send the dog to the next obstacle.”

In Marko’s opinion the new world champion, Stanislav Kurochkin and his border collie Zippi were perfect examples of this: “He has taught his dog so well that he can buy time for himself and get on time to critical points on the course.”

“The failures on all courses came in many different places which made watching the runs even more interesting. The courses were fascinating.”

Even more emphasis on dog’s individual skills

Marko says that he didn’t get new stuff for his training list but the importance of dog’s independent skills grew: “I still need to train my dogs to be more independent and be able to handle further away from the dog, and, especially, ins and outs need to be trained very well. We train them continuously, so it’s nothing new, but AWC strengthened my view on the issue.”

The most memorable runs in AWC 2019

The most memorable moment of AWC 2019 for Marko was a hamburger he ate on Friday, because he wasn’t able to point out one particular moment in the competition. Congratulations to the person who prepared that hamburger - that must have been a spectacular one ;)

The real highlight for him was Stanislav Kurochkin’s and Zippi’s runs: “Stanislav was exceptional! It was inspiring to see how well he has trained his dog and how well he used that as a strength. And I also enjoyed the final runs in all sizes. They were very exciting since everyone did their best and performed on the razor edge. Everything can change in a split second and a tiny mistake can cost you a medal. This happened e.g. to very skilled teams like Teresa Králová and Say, and Elina Jänesniemi and Etna.”

Although there were so many wonderful runs, Marko wants to mention two more partnerships that made a huge impression on him: “Euan Paterson with his dog Crazee. Wow! That was an insanely good run. And then, there was that husky Simon with Leanne Russel Williams! To get a husky to perform like that in agility is something one needs to respect!”

And the answer to that obligatory question about the superiority of the Germans: “It’s the schnitzels.” Now that the secret is out, next year in Tallinn there might be different dogs on the podium ;)

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