I am Henk Slijkhuis and together with my wife Marina we live in the Netherlands in a village close to the German border. In grew up with dogs and when I got married, we bought our first dog, Senno, a Bernese mountaindog. I started training obedience, and he performed quite well. A few years later, our first Labrador came into our home. It was a bitch, and we named her Kelsey. With her I also followed obedience classes, but then I got in contact with people who were training their retrievers for retrieving. I got enthusiastic and looked for a training group. At first, I competed at workingtest, but later on I also competed on field trials.

Several times I have represented my country on the IWT, which we won in 2008 and 2009, on the Coup d’Europe and on the Skinner World Cup Retrieverevent. In 2010 my bitch became top dog on this event. In 2019 I was involved in the organisation of the IWT in my country.

I started to judge in 2003; so this year I have my 20^th anniversary. What I like to see is a dog who has a good expression in his work, who shows eagerness and pace. A dog should mark well, should be a good gamefinder and if it is necessary het should be obedient on the commands given by the handler, without relying on it.

I look forward to judge on the workingtest and hope that every competitor will enjoy the event.