Bella - the golden retriever that changed everything. Photo: Marge Mitt.

Have you ever thought “Why isn’t there a better place to train in my town” or “Someone should create better circumstances for training here”? I bet most of us have. And it’s ok, it’s only natural. However, that famous “someone” is badly needed if we want things to improve or change. And sometimes that someone needs to be you. This is something Jaanika Lillenberg from Estonia realised when she wanted to be able to train agility all year round with her dogs.

Everything started with a golden retriever puppy

Jaanika started agility 10 years ago with a very active golden retriever Bella. She had bought the dog for her daughter after years of persuasion. When finally she gave in to her daughter’s wish, she had no clue what this would lead to.

“Bella needed something to do, so I started agility with her. In 2010, the possibilities for doing agility were quite limited. We had wooden jumps and self-made obstacles. And there weren’t any available times for individual training, all times were booked for groups.”

Jaanika took a liking to the sport and Bella proved to be an unusually fast golden retriever, so she wanted to train more: “In 2011, we started to dream of having our own hall for our club.” However, there were only 30-40 handlers in the club and when they started to think about it, they realized there was no way they could afford to build the hall. But the dream didn’t leave Jaanika alone.

First step: Outdoor arena

“In 2012, I started communicating with the Tartu city government about finding an abandoned hall for us to use. All the options were too small or too narrow for having official competitions. Then I started to look for some land near Tartu to train outdoors in the summertime.”

Jaanika was working in her own financial services company and in 2013 the company was growing and Jaanika was able to put aside some money to buy a small piece (45x74m2) of land. She built two full-sized fields with artificial grass and one with natural grass and opened outdoor arena Agility Arenguselts in March 2014.

“When I had more possibilities in regards to training time, our development in agility was rapid and I got very attracted to the sport. I started as an agility coach trainee and successfully passed the exam in December 2016. Things were going quite well.”

Burnt building as a starting point for dreams

But when it was snowing outdoors, Jaanika’s thoughts went back to the agility hall. Then her partner ran into an old building about 35 kilometers from Tartu.

The fire. Photo: a nice lady from nearby house in Vastse-Kuuste :)

The building had no roof or walls, it had been burnt down and it was a bit too narrow. Regardless, they started discussions with the village government to learn more about the history and the owner of the place. “We discovered the place was a great disgrace to the village and they had started a public competition among those who wanted to invest in it and make it nice again. We won this competition.”

After the fire. Photo: a nice lady from nearby house in Vastse-Kuuste :)

Planning took 2 years, building 3 months

Planning took 2 years, many negotiations, paperwork and sleepless nights. “In the beginning, there were a lot of open questions: where to get the money, who would build the hall, what can we build and how?” Such a situation can make anyone want to give up, but Jaanika really wanted to train in nice conditions and kept going.

The planning phase took long but building only took 3 months! “It was an intense period of time: I wasn’t able to do my day job because I was so busy taking care of the building site, making sure that all the materials arrived on time, work started at the agreed-on time and so on.”

“I always thought I could do it. I really had no choice. I had to do it. I had a young malinois and I loved the dog so much I didn’t want to waste time training only in summer with her. You can do anything for your dog!”

“I always thought I could do it. I really had no choice. I had to do it. I had a young malinois and I loved the dog so much I didn’t want to waste time training only in summer with her. You can do anything for your dog!”

— Jaanika Lillenberg

Finding funding was almost impossible

Most people thought that the place where Jaanika was planning the hall was too far from Tartu. “I was not expecting to get bookings right away, I just wanted to train my dog. I prepared myself for not getting my money back any time soon. It’s a nonprofitable project but I'm totally cool with that. I needed that mindset. Otherwise, I would have been so stressed that I could not have been positive company for my dog" explains Jaanika.

Jaanika thought that there’s no point in building a cold agility hall because expectations increase and conditions improve all the time. “But banks in Estonia don’t take non-profit organizations such as agility clubs seriously. We also looked for financial support from different European funds - with no luck. It was pretty sad when we realized it would be almost impossible to get funding.”

But by then Jaanika’s company was strengthening. She went to the bank with 4 guarantees; She mortgaged 2 real estates in Tartu, including her own city home and the office space of her company, her business gave a guarantee for the loan and they paid for an expensive guarantee from the Estonian Rural Development Foundation.

In other words, she took an enormous personal risk here. There were no lottery wins. Just the courage to actually take the dive and go for her dreams.

“There were no lottery wins. Just the courage to actually take the dive and go for her dreams.”

Requirements and regulations increased costs (and decreased sleep)

“The financial part was boring, but all the planning and paperwork were very scary - all the requirements and regulations that you needed to agree on. And they increased costs significantly.

One example of the big problems we encountered during the project was that the law for water reserve in case of a fire was changing and you could not have your water reserve further than 400m from the building. We had this big artificial lake in the village but it was further away and we were almost denied permission to build because of this. They actually insisted that we need to find a new water reserve closer to the property. When I went to Tartu to a special office for fire acceptance for building sites, an officer said that 100m from our building there's a big very old underground water reserve. It was visible on old maps but even the villagers did not remember it. So luckily we didn’t have to make a hole for a new artificial lake!”

In spite of all the challenges, the hall was opened in November 2017.

Monthly costs mainly covered with competitions and events

“The monthly costs I pay for include loan payment, guarantee payment, utilities etc. People aren't ready to pay much for renting the space and there aren't many hours in the evenings to rent out, so it's not enough to cover the expenses. Therefore, we need to hold competitions and other events.“

When asked what she would do differently if she needed to start the same project again, Jaanika laughs and explains: “I’m not sure I could do it again, the project took so much energy. I knew it would be scary but there were times when I didn’t sleep for weeks because of the worry. I think I did it perfectly, but I’m not sure I could do it as perfectly again.”

This entire adventure started with a nice gift for Jaanika's daughter. Dogs and agility really can change lives. And with her achievement, Jaanika shows that you don’t need superpowers to be able to make a change. All you actually need is determination and guts - and love for your dog!

“you don’t need superpowers to be able to make a change. All you actually need is determination and guts - and love for your dog!”

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