Please click on the picture below for a bio about each of the 2026 Judges and sample course plans:

Ashley Deacon

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. Just before Thanksgiving 2002, Luka arrived on a Continental flight from Cleveland to San Francisco. This dog changed my life forever... 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 competing 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 5 years. I enjoy designing flowing courses that blend speed with handling challenges.

I am excited and honored to be judging the 2026 FitPaws World Agility Open! I wish all competitors the best of luck as they prepare for the event!!

Daniel Walz

My name is Daniel and I am 33 years old. Since 2003 I am working with dogs, initially in the areas of puppies, companion dogs and obedience training. I have been practicing agility since 2007, and in the following years I have attended and led various courses in the fields of obedience and agility.

In order to constantly expand my knowledge in agility and to be able to make a positive impact on the further development of the sport, I decided to become an agility judge. Over the years my work as FCI Agility Judge helped me to build up a large network with friends all over the world for what i am very grateful!

For me it is a pleasure to design fluid, smooth and fast courses that also contain technical passages. In my courses, handlers need to know good handling skills and how to handle the dog’s line as well, as the dogs need to be well trained. The mixture of handling skills and “dog skills” distinguishes my courses. 

Tamas Traj

I was born in Gyor in 1988. Being a student at Budapest Business School, I currently live in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. I got to know agility in 2001, visiting a training session with my first dog, Bizsu, a miniature poodle. I am very grateful for her, to get to know this wonderful sport, that later became a part of my life, brought extraordinary experiences and a lot of friends. My second dog Witch, a border collie entered my life in 2007. Experience with a large dog resulted in a completely different world, full of new challenges. I reached National Champion titles and was member of the Hungarian Team numerous times, both at the EO and the World Championships.

Apart from running with my dogs, I’m related to agility in many other ways. I was the trainer of the Agility Team in Gyor between 2007-2012, the Teamleader between 2009-2012 and I was also member of the Hungarian Agility Committee between 2010-2012. I currently hold trainings at numerous clubs in Budapest for beginners up to master levels.

I was dreaming of becoming a judge since my first competitive years, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to start the education, and finally become an international agility judge in 2012. Throughout my international judging career, I have had the chance to judge in many foreign countries including Italy, Austria, Germany, Czeck Republic, Poland, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Serbia, Norway, Peru, Japan, Greece, France and I have got invitations for next year from Finland, Slovenia, Portugal. My main aim is to build technical and speedy courses that challenge the handlers as well as the dogs, and that are really exciting for spectators and fans too. I am personally very happy to see brilliant technical solutions and really energetic runs on my courses.