Ms Elsa Soo, Chief Trainer
Since young Elsa has always have had dogs at home. As a teenager, her constant companion were 3 medium-sized Singapore Specials followed by 2 cute and fluffy Pomeranians in later years plus more Singapore Specials! Her love for dogs directed her a career as narcotic and protection dog handler with the Prison Dog Unit and Police Dog Unit in 1993 where she learned the fine art of protection training and scent training. Professionally with the K9 unit, she has trained Belgium Malinios, German Shepherds, Springer Spaniel and these wonderful canines played an important role in keeping Singapore’s Prisons safe and free from drugs and riots.
In 2002, Whisky, a miniature schnauzer came into her life and this is the dog that brought Elsa to a world of dog sports. Thereafter, every single dog Elsa handled competes in the highest level or qualified/represented Singapore in international competitions.
Elsa and Whisky took their first agility class when Whisky was 4 years old. This team went on to win multiple competitions in Singapore and Whisky achieved National Jumper of the Dog of the year in 2009 & 2010.
In 2006, Elsa started her Border Collie Sirius with Obedience Training to instill some discipline in the young dog. What an amazing team they were! They went on to compete from Basic obedience working their way up to Advance Obedience nationally and Sirius was awarded National Obedience Dog of the Year 2010 and 2012 & 2013! This is the highest accolade for the dog that beats all competing dogs for the year. After retiring Sirius from obedience, the team focused solely in agility and went on to represent Singapore in the IFCS competition in Netherlands in 2016. They were also qualifiers for Crufts Agility International 2014 as well as World Agility Open (WAO) in 2016.
In 2017, Elsa represented Singapore again, this time round in the WAO in Netherlands, with another outstanding Border Collie, Starrelito Orionis the Hunter, Aries. This team had consecutively earned a seat in the WAO in 2017 & 2018. Separately, Aries was also a qualifier to represent Singapore in the IFCS WAC 2017 in Spain.
Both Sirius and Aries were the top scorer in the IFCS tryouts in 2016 and 2017 respectively, beating all dogs that participated in the national event.
Currently, Elsa is training her future champion, Devongem Lite of Nite Cosmic, Venus. The young dog had her first fun competition in Japan in 2017. Team Elsa and Venus were among the best performance team nationally and represented Singapore in the WAO 2019 competition in Netherlands. The team achieved 15th among 98 large dogs from all over the world in Biathlon event. Venus and Elsa also qualified in the 2 most prestigious agility events in the world , ie the European Open 2019 (July) and FCI Agility World Championship 2019 (September).
In her little spare time, Elsa volunteered with the Singapore Kennel Club. She first started by volunteering her time in conducting the highly popular Good Canine Citizen class where she has the pleasure to meet dogs of various breeds and size; she also organised agility usage in West Coast Dog Run. Elsa is currently the Vice- President of the national club as well as the Chairman of the Dog Sports Committee.
Last but not least, Elsa is a recognized international agility judge for the Singapore Kennel Club, Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI). She had been invited to judge in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Elsa also conducted multiple agility seminars/trainings in these countries.
Professional Training in Obedience and Behavioural includes:
- Narcotic Detection Training by Prison Dog Unit
- Protection Training and Scent Training by Police Dog Unit
- Advance Obedience by Ms Mia Skogster (multiple IPO World Champion)
- Managing Reactive Dog through Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT) by Ms Carly Loyer (USA)
Advance Agility Training with top handlers all over the world:
- Mr Pavol Vakonič (Slovakia, Agility World Champion 2015 and FCI Judge)
- Mdm Martina Vakoničová (Agility Trainer and FCI Judge from Slovakia)
- Ms Susan Koldenhof (Agility Trainer from Netherlands)
- Ms Teri Oneil (Agility Trainer from Canada)
- Mr Andre Gerard Landry (Agility Trainer from Canada)
- Ms Lauren Langman (Agility Trainer from United Kingdom)
- Ms Svetlana Tumanova (Agility Trainer from Russia)
- Ms Jane Elene Christensen (Agility Trainer from Denmark)
- Mr Kaitoda Masanori (Agility Trainer and FCI Judge from Japan)
- Mr Toshiyuki Oba (Agility Trainer and FCI Judge from Japan)
- Ms Nina Gregl (Agility Trainer from Croatia)
- Ms Anne Lenz (Germany, Agility World Champion 2016)
- Mr Zeljko Gora (Agility Trainer and FCI Judge from Croatia)
- Mr Lee Gibson (Agility Trainer and UKI Judge from United Kingdom)
- Mr Tamas Traj (Agility Trainer and FCI Judge from Hungary)
- Ms Sevtlana Kreslina (Agility Trainer and FCI Judge from Latvia)
- Mr Alexander Beitl (Agility Trainer and FCI Judge from Germany)