About us

Carina has owned and bred champion show dogs since her teens, and later combined a busy career in financial services as investment banker in the U.K., Switzerland and Finland with her passion. She has bred Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and Labrador Retrievers, and since 2011, Scottish Terriers, when her young daughter came home with a Scottie puppy “to stay for the weekend”. This puppy, “Maisa” or International and Multi-Champion, Benelux Winner Perhaps Standing Ovation, is now the mother and grandmother of several champions. Maisa’s daughter “Martha” or International Champion Tartan Dreams Magic Spell, is the namesake for Martha & Friends Dog Wellness.

Carina presented her project of creating a center of excellence providing multiple professional services for dogs to the Luxembourg government start-up program Fit4Entrepreneurship in 2019, and this became a reality when The Dog Wellness Company S.a.r.l. was founded in August 2020, and renovation works began in October on the building which she and her associates had identified a few days before the first lockdown began. Martha & Friends Dog Wellness, the first Center of its kind in Luxembourg, and owned by the The Dog Wellness Company, opened its doors in late November 2020.

A Finnish national, Carina has lived in Luxembourg with her daughter since 2014, and speaks English, French, Swedish and Finnish. Carina is responsible for the management and day to day running of the Center. In the afternoons, she is most often found in the Boutique, where she loves meeting clients and helping them choose the right food or accessories for their dogs.

Annukka is a toy breed specialist and breeder of Cavalier King Charles and King Charles spaniels since 1971. She has bred/owned over 60 Champions, some of them winning also at Crufts. An FCI All-Breed International Judge, she has been active in dog world for over 40 years as a breeder and exhibitor, and for over 30 years as a championship show judge, having judged in over 30 countries, including Best in Show awards.

She is an elected member of The British Kennel Club. Annukka’s professional life has been as Founder and Managing partner of a leading financial services company in the Nordic region. She lives in Finland and has been an active adviser to the development of Martha & Friends Dog Wellness.

Lars has been involved in the development of the Martha & Friends Dog Wellness project since its inception. He is a private equity investor with more than 30 years of experience in real estate development, technology investments and management of own investment funds. He is an investor in several technology and consumer goods companies, and more recently, has identified the pet services and most particularly the dog care sector as an opportunity.

Besides investing in Martha & Friends Dog Wellness, he has more recently been involved as landlord in the setting up of a new dog day care center in Oslo in 2020.

Helen, along with her children, have been looking after their friends’ dogs for many years before deciding it was finally time to have their own dog. Eddie, a Scottie and son of Martha, joined the family in 2019 and is a regular visitor to our center.

Helen, a former Chief Operating Officer of a major financial services company in Luxembourg, as well as more recently, for a company providing training for the financial services industry in Luxembourg, has been actively involved during the first few months in setting up systems and processes for the daily management of the company. Helen stepped down from her active role to pursue other projects and remains an investor in the company.

Covey McAllister joined our team in September 2021 as our administrative manager and strategist. Covey served 10 years in the US Military as an Airborne Officer prior to moving to Luxembourg. She helped to establish and currently runs a 2000-member Tennis Academy in Kockelscheuer and she is also actively involved in business communications through several clubs and companies in Luxembourg.

Covey has an 11-year-old Bull Terrier named Nikita and she is excited to be part of the effort to help individuals and families balance the care of their pets with their busy and demanding lives.

Covey speaks English and Arabic.

Tanja is a Detection Dog Trainer, Instructor and an Animal Trainer with professional degree in animal training. She will graduate in autumn -23 as an Animal Trainer with specialized professional degree. Tanja’s strong professional expertise are training Scent Detection Dogs for professional use and behavior therapy and basic dog obedience training. Tanja works at Martha&Friends as a Head Trainer and she is responsible for the training of the working dogs used at International K9 Institute and Martha&Friends. She works as an instructor in courses and training events, and plans training contents for the needs of clients, is an encouraging coach and is a well-thought-of and experienced lecturer. Tanja trains Explosive Detection Dogs to improve occupational safety at blast construction sites and Bed Bug Detection Dogs to help control pests for professional use. She has solid experience of operational work with working dogs. Tanja has many years of experience in developing and training quality standards for Conservation Dogs, as well as working with them in a variety of environments and terrain conditions. Tanja works as a trainer and instructor for Conservation Dogs and a surveyor with Conservation Dogs for EU-Life Flying squirrel project since 2018 and for EU-LIFE Revives (freshwater pearl mussel) since 2022. Tanja also has a degree from university of applied sciences in social studies and she enjoys working with dogs and dog owners. She has a German Shepherd and Belgian Shepherd Malinoises.

Tanja speaks fluent English, Finnish and Swedish

Lea is a passionate animal trainer and conservation detection dog handler with an academic degree in animal ecology. She started her career path as an animal trainer and educator for dog owners about 15 years ago. Lea is mainly teaching nosework for pet dogs, helping owners of reactive dogs, and educating dog trainers in science-based training methods. She has also worked as a zoo animal training and management specialist in the past. Her current pet- and working dogs are a Labrador retriever, Belgian shepherd Malinois, working Cocker Spaniel, and Australian Kelpie. Lea speaks English, German, and Estonian.

Anna-Lena grew up with dogs, her family has had Great Swiss Mountain Dogs for over 20 years. She has been a passionate rider since the age of five and got her own Quarter Horse mare at the age of 14. She trained the mare herself, which had a significant impact on her interaction with animals. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 2019, she decided in 2020 to take in the scared dog Amy from the animal shelter and a short time later to rescue the male Chihuahua Jacky from poor husbandry. Through training with her two dogs and befriending Anne Barrere, also a member of the Martha & Friends team, she found her way to the company in June 2021, where she now works in Day Care, as well as training. She is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Psychology at the University of Trier, which she will complete in 2023. In the future, she would like to move towards animal-assisted therapy.

She speaks fluent English and German.

Antje Lehmann, who worked for many years as a veterinary surgeon’s assistant and since 2018, has worked as senior dog day-care professional and trainer at a large dog HUTA (doggy day care) in Germany. Antje is currently finalising her studies as dog behaviourist, mindfulness and Emotional Support Dog trainer, and will be working both as carer of your dogs as well as assisting with the training program.

Antje’s constant companions are her therapy dog, Golden Retriever Amali and Chihuahuas Lili and Piccolo.

She speaks German and is improving her English.

Viktorija Zilinskaite graduated from the esteemed Dog Pearl Grooming Academy in Lithuania and subsequently attended many Master Classes and training with Anna Bardysheva (Russia). Owner of a grooming salon in France for the past five years, Viktorija has now relocated to Luxembourg and will lead the development of our grooming business.

She speaks Lithuanian, French and English.

Dorota Kornas graduated from the Szkola Grooming in Poland and subsequently attended many classes is animal psychology and pharmacology culminating in a certification of Canine Behaviouralist in 2022.

She speaks Polish and English.

Perrine Capello joins the team with significant experience of working with and training dogs of all types and backgrounds and comes to Martha's after more than 2 years at the Thionville SPA shelter.

Perrine’s doggy companions are Border Collier mix Poushkine and Västgötaspitz Meïka.

She speaks French and English.

We are delighted to welcome Artur Bonarski as new member of the Martha & Friends team since July 1st. After a successful career in event management, Artur decided to dedicate his life to looking after dogs, both professionally and as volunteer looking after shelter dogs in Romania though NGO’s in Germany such as Help broken Hearts e.v. and Vierbeiner in Not e.v. Through his work with these shelters, Artur has experience in training and rehabilitating anxious rescue dogs. Artur has been with dogs since his early childhood, and he currently has two dogs, a 12 years old Dachshund mix, Milan, and a 3-year old Romanian shepherd mix, Kora. Artur speaks English, German and Polish, and some basic French.

more info to come

more info to come

more info to come

Verena Helfrich has been working professionally with dogs and their owners since 2008. In her early years working with dogs, she gained experience working in various animal shelters in Greece and Spain, and training therapy dogs. She has a degree in educational sciences, and now also offers coaching and support for parents and children. Verena has a three-year professional certification as dog trainer and behaviorist, prior to which she completed formal training as a professional dogwalker in Germany.

She has a keen interest in personal development and communication between dogs and humans. In 2019, she published her first book „Outdoor-Abenteuer mit Hund“, and has recently launched Tuulove, a brand of vegan products and cosmetics for dog care. At Martha & Friends, Verena offers various adventures, body-language workshops, nose and scent workshops, and specialised workshops for muzzle and dog gear training. She lives with her husband and four dogs, two Greyhounds, a rescued Spanish Galgo mix and a geriatric Patterdale Terrier, as well as a batch of other farm animals. She is fluent in both German and English.

Jacqueline Koerfer is the founder and owner of “Nosy Dogs”, a dog training center teaching dogs and their owners scent and odor detection. Her training program “Spuernasenarbeit” focuses on training detection dogs with a focus on the conservation of species and nature. These dogs specialize variously in preventing, mapping, and eradicating invasive species, and finding and protecting endangered species of animals and plants.

The advantage of dogs is that they can cover large areas and rough terrain in a relative short time, detect cryptic species and scents hidden in deep vegetation. Jacqueline’s work with detection dogs was awarded second place by RTL as “The Most Promising Start-Up in 2020. Jacqueline is a certified dog trainer under German regulations. She also works with her own four Lagotto Romagnolo dogs, all trained in odour detection.

At Martha & Friends, Jacqueline’s Spuernasenarbeit course will train dog-human teams to work together over six months, with dogs initially trained in the basics of odor detection, and gradually specializing in a chosen field such as tracking wolves or other endangered species, to detecting mold, animal carcasses or young animals hidden in the under-growth. The first Martha & Friends teams are expected to graduate from the first phase of their studies at the end of this year.

She speaks Luxembourgish, German, French and English.

Beatrice (Trixy) brings science and passion to her work as a dog trainer (and high school teacher), and has been working as a trainee and freelance trainer at Martha&Friends since March 2022. She holds an MSc in Ethology (Animal Behaviour) and has a deep understanding of animal behaviour and the underlying physiological mechanisms that influence it. In addition, her Postgraduate Certificate in Education equips her with valuable insights into effective teaching methods and strategies. Moreover, she has been organising and leading kids and youth activities as a Scout’s leader and for the “Service National de la Jeunesse” for over 20 years. She is particularly interested in working with children with learning difficulties and Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs with her dogs. She leads the Pawsitive Children classes with the support of her pack, the terrible three: Taboo, a certified R.E.A.D dog (« Lesehund ») and agility fan; Easy, currently training to become a school dog (« pädagogischer Begleithund ») and Coco, the professional lapdog. She is fluent in Luxembourgish, German, French and English.

Trixy hosts both our weekly Kids & Dogs courses and our holiday Kids & Dogs Camps.

We are pleased to announce our newest guest trainer, Isabel Weber, a hugely successful breeder of Shar-Pei, and professional handler of many breeds since her youth.

Isabel worked for many highly respected breeders and trainers in Scandinavia in the early years of her career, and completed her studies as certified dog trainer in 2017. She graduated as professional dog trainer and behaviourist in 2020. Her greatest successes as breeder and handler are to have bred the Junior World Winner 2021 Shar-Pei as well as Owner/Handler of the VDH Winner of the Year and top winning Greyhound in Germany and Luxembourg 2021. She has handled many dogs (including her own) to Best in Show and Reserve Best in Show placements around Europe.