Search & Rescue

Digna Schoonenboom's CV

For the first 25 years of my ‘dog ​​career’, I trained my own dogs primarily in obedience (national program) and later also in agility. During that time, I was also active as an instructor for pet dogs and co-founder/instructor at the Pet Dog Instructor program.

In the 1990s, I was introduced to rescue dog sports by Ruud Haak and Resi Gerritsen. In 2002, I became a national judge for the Dutch Kennel Club, followed two years later by an appointment as an international FCI judge. A few years later, I also became an IRO judge and international IRO instructor.

Since 1995, I have been an instructor and dog handler for my own association, the Rescue Dog Working Group de Polderspeurders. I have personally trained four Belgian Malinois in various disciplines (Fl-B, T-B, L-B, W-A, and F-A). With my current dog, I achieved 4th place RH-FL B at the IRO World Championships in the Czech Republic last year. This dog is also used for really mission in acute missing persons cases in the Netherlands.