This weekend Ace Trainers Classic had the extreme pleasure of hosting the official live stream at the AWDF National Championship. Steve and I set out to Little Rock with our equipment. We were excited about seeing everyone at one of our nation’s largest dog competitions. We knew Ivan Balabanov was planning on being there and Steve had his sights set on getting a few nuggets of wisdom from one of the best in the working dog world.

If you have never attended the AWDF National Championship; you should really make a point to next year. The days and nights were filled with amazing dog trainers, handlers, gurus, and the like. Getting the chance to really get into a conversation with someone like Ivan Balabanov at an event this size can be difficult. The atmosphere was electric. There was so much greatness happening all around us. But, Steve persisted, and we got a few minutes with Ivan.

Anyone who has ever spoken to Ivan for even a few minutes or tuned in to his very popular podcast, knows that he is passionate about our sport. He was so generous in thanking Ace Trainers Classic for “…stepping up…” and doing the live feed for the 2023 AWDF Nationals. He quickly transitioned into his passion of freedom in our sport. Ivan Balabanov is passionate about trainers and handlers being allowed the freedom to train their dogs the best way they see fit to help their dogs be successful working dogs.

Ivan Balabanov is a multiple-time World Champion dog trainer and author. He has a self-proclaimed obsession with animal learning and cognition. He is passionate about behavior studies and evolutionary psychology. You can find out more about Ivan Balabanov’s game changing dog training methods over at Training Without Conflict. Be sure to follow Ivan on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter as well!