Keep going. Always forward.
Vai Avanti is Italian for ‘keep going’. A name that suits everything we want to achieve with our dogs.
Shany Van der Meulen
In 2020 I was very proud to apply for my own kennel name. I was expecting my first litter of my own that May, and getting the kennel name approved by the KMSH in time was going to be tight. Against all odds, I was able to proudly announce my first litter under my new kennel name, ‘Vai Avanti’. A name that suits me down to the ground, and one that fits so well with what I want to achieve with my dogs: keep going!
Anyone who has known me for a while knows that I've been a regular at sighthound race tracks since I was little, both in Belgium and abroad. In 2018 the moment finally came and I had my very first dog of my own: Lylo. Lylo was a big dream come true for me, and together we have had an incredible number of adventures.
In 2020 it was time for my first litter. Thanks to my grandmother and her partner, I was able to use Bayah (Samba Supersonic) to breed it. That litter gave us 4 little liquorice drops: 1 bitch (just what I'd been hoping for) and 3 dogs. The plan was to keep a bitch and never to keep a dog as well, but that's history now too: both Vienna and Flappie joined our team.
Breeding my first litter was a dream in itself, but it didn't stop there. Without any expectations, they achieved more than I had ever dared to hope for. Vienna is an incredible dog who has already proved so much at a young age, and her brother Flappie was not to be outdone, adding some fine titles to his record.
A few years on, our team now has 5 mainstays. A daughter of Lylo and a daughter of Vienna have made our team even stronger, and we can't wait to see everything they still have to show us.
Keanu Vercauteren
Keanu has been part of team Vai Avanti since 2022. From day 1 Keanu had an incredible bond with the dogs, but above all with Flappie. The two of them are thick as thieves and never far apart. Together they've already won some great races, too.
Keanu also brought us back into contact with flyball, which we have recently taken up with Mayzie and Nixy.
Here's to many more adventures together!