Tamás Tráj
Biography
Tamás started agility in 2001 at the age of 13 with his miniature poodle Bijou, and from early on was a high achiever. In 2004, 2005, 2006 Tamas and Bijou represented Hungary competed at the Junior FCI agility world championships winning silver medals and were four times Hungarian national champions.
His second dog Witch entered his life in 2007, and third dog Rui in 2016 (both border collies) and running large dogs was a completely different world and full of new challenges. Tamas was able to repeat his success and won National Champion titles with both, and Hungarian Large Team member at the 2012, 2018,
2019, and 2022 European Opens and the 2012, 2014, 2019, 2022 FCI World Championships.
From a young age Tamás dreamed of becoming a judge and finished his international judging training in 2012. He was nominated by the Hungarian Kennel club and judged the European Open in 2014 and in 2016 he selected and judged at the FCI Agility World Championships in Zaragoza. He has since judged in 37
different countries.
Tamás loves course design, and feels it's important that the designer knows how it feels to run a course. For him it’s a kind of an art, finding the balance between fluent, fast and technical sequences, playing with natural lines and collection, and creating a nice rhythm that is really exciting for spectators and fans to watch.
His course designs have impacted current agility trends. He was one of the first judges introducing tunnels under dog walks and A-frames, creating space in small rings and suite of new challenges. Tamás was also one of the first judges to design courses with natural lines and larger distances that help dogs enjoy negotiating courses, and influencing the sport towards to teaching independent dog skills.
In 2019 in cooperation of three international judges Jan Egil Eide, Petr Pupik, Tamás started online course design education which over 700 judges and trainers have completed. The program has been very successful increasing the body of knowledge all around the world on how to design safe and creative courses that an enjoyable to run and entertaining to watch.
Tamás is currently the president of the Hungary Agility Judges Board, Head of the Hungarian Agility Sport Committee, the delegate of Hungary FCI international Agility Meeting, and business owner of Dog Flow Arena.
Courses
Examples of courses designed by Tamás can be found on Tamás Tráj Agility on Facebook