Marko Mäkelä from Finland

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you and how did you get involved in agility? And what led you to become a judge?

My name is Marko Mäkelä and I started agility in 1993 with our family sheltie when I accidentally heard about this sport in some ”arkitottelevaisuus” class. I never even thought I would start to compete, but one thing led to another and now I have been teaching agility full-time since 2009. 2017 I became an FCI judge. I started to think it would be great to experience also this part of the sport. Earlier I had already done almost everything else, training and competing with my dogs, teaching agility, organising competitions – becoming a judge was missing from this picture.

What has been your most memorable experience as an agility judge?

Hmm, there are many cool competitions that I judged. Many tryouts and national championships  in different countries, Norwegian Open,  Slovenian Open, US Open, WAO. Hard to choose only one experience

When designing courses what are the key things you pay special attention to?

Safety for sure is number one criteria.  After  safety comes fun and interesting challenges for the level of the event.

What are you most looking forward to at the 2026 Agility World Championship in Finland?

I can’t wait to feel the excitement in and outside of the ring and also feeling  the great atmosphere in this high level event!

What do you think is the best thing about Finland – why should people visit besides the amazing competition atmosphere?

Best thing in Finland  is the beautiful nature and the everyone’s right to be able to enjoy it. That is the true freedom to be able to hike in the forests freely!