Stew MacKenzie (Masters & Advanced Class Instructor)

Stew is a Masters level judge for the AAC (Agility Association of Canada). He has been competing and teaching agility for the passed 20 years. He competes in several other dog sports as well and has placed or won events at the regional and national level in several different sports. Animals are a center focus for Stew as in his regular job he is a veterinarian with a Fellowship in veterinary dentistry! Stew has placed four agility trial champion titles on his dogs and currently competes at the master's level with Sky a Belgian Malinois. He is also training a couple young dogs for competition too. Stew brings a diverse knowledge of training techniques to his classes as he has placed many different performance titles on a variety of dogs, ranging from Rough Collies and Labrador Retrievers to very high drive Belgian Malinois.

Evelyn Hampton (Intro to Agility & Novice 1 Class Instructor)

I lived almost half my life not knowing what dog agility even was! After asking a fellow employee about all the fancy ribbons displayed on his office wall, I found out.  Fourteen years later, I have slowly developed a love for agility and have two dogs competing in AAC (Agility Association of Canada). Wynn Dixie (pictured), a rescue from Mexico, is my latest love-bug/project. She is so different from Sami; my first agility dog that went from pet to a sidekick at agility events. After I got over the fear of looking like a fool out on the agility course, I entered trials. Now, I may still look like a fool, but love testing our training each time out on course!  The number people I have met and made friends with while doing agility is tremendous. Like any other sport there are ups and downs but the agility community is very supportive and enjoyable to be a part of.

 Kristy Thompson (Intro to Agility & Novice 1 Class Instructor)

I went to my first agility class in 2009 with my Miniature Schnauzer Jaxx. We both loved it and looked forward to class each week. We met so many new friends and quickly became part of the Calgary Agility community. Jaxx and I have traveled around the province to the AAC Regional Agility Championship each year. Finally in 2019, after coming in second for a number of years in a row, we became the Regional Champion of our height category. Traveling in the summer to the AAC National Agility Championship has often been our family vacation over the years. Again, meeting many new friends while enjoying the support of husband Aric and the other family dogs. Jaxx also obtained his AAC Lifetime Achievement Award in March 2019.

We added a Xoloitzcuintli (Mexican Hairless) to the family in 2012. Apollo is very athletic, but his environmental anxieties opened a new world of training techniques and learning to find ways of helping him. While we both learned so much together and he had his own successes, he did not love agility and retired from competing in 2019.

In 2016 we welcomed a black Miniature Schnauzer to the Thompson family and started training for agility. Panzer has his own style of learning and has different strengths & weaknesses from his brothers. We are having a great time doing agility together and his achievements are starting to stack up. Each dog teaches me something new and I am excited to share my knowledge with you.

Fotina Karavas (Novice 2 Class Instructor)