San was born into the "B-litter", hence his pedigree name "Bold and Brave". I would not really describe San as either bold nor brave though. 🤭 He is sweet, sensitive and careful. He was the perfect addition to my duo at the time, having the tolerance to deal with Juno's... quirks 😅 without feeling the need to challenge her, and at the same time giving gentle, slower-paced Kai the space and quiet he needed. San has always been able to read other dogs well, being conflict-averse by nature.
San quickly earned the nickname "Belachelijk braaf", where belachelijk translates to ridiculous, ludicrous and braaf is something along the lines of good, nice, obedient, well-behaved.
In other words, San is a ridiculously good boy.

As a puppy, San was already blessed with a bunch of traits that I was able to nurture and encourage, allowing him to grow into such a wonderful sports dog.
He came with great toy and food drive and an eagerness to work together with me that just seemed pre-installed. He's always had great awareness of his own body in space too, which helped immensely with his running contacts and jumping technique.
Needless to say, his athletic build really helps as well.

San really, really wants to do good. He's a soft dog, so I had to protect his confidence especially when he was young, but he's grown a lot more resilient since then. He loves to play games, so we played a lot of games where he really had to listen to "get it right", and that helped him immensely in being able to listen to my verbal cues on the agility course.

I've focused on agility with San because that is my passion, but I have done a little stock work with him as well. He's shown great interest in working stock and his drive to work and obedience is no different in this sport. I'm not currently training him on stock but I might pick it up again in the future. It's definitely for lack of time and resources. After all, this dog can do it all!

I always say that my dogs are pets first, sports dogs second, and breeding stock last.
Personally for me there's no point in having a great agility dog if you can't live with them!

Fortunately San is also a pleasure to live with. He has a great off-switch and is fine with a few days of very little activity, but if you're up for a game at any time of the day, any game, he's game!
He used to be quite indifferent to strangers, but has definitely opened up over the years. You'll have to work for it, but San is a real snugglebug to the people he knows!
He's fair to other dogs and speaks the dog language very well. San trains with another intact male and they ignore each completely. 😅

Gladly! 😁

San's ATCH video – which he finished quite late at 4 years old, because I missed a lot of ASCA trials due to my hip injury.

I made this video when San turned two years old. I was so proud of what he could do already, and so consistently! We were still mostly in lockdown at that point so this is all training footage.

One of San's first workshops, puppy bootcamp at 8 months old. I loved his focus in this new busy double arena environment, and his ability to already show such good understanding of my cues at just 8 months old!