September 2024 – Training Program Updates

Martha & Friends and international K9 Institute in Finland will be terminating their close cooperation on training during the course of this autumn. Tanja Karpela, Founder of Ik9i and Head Trainer of Martha & Friends since June 2023, has been awarded several important professional working dog assignments recently in Finland involving explosives detection with her dogs. These new opportunities require increased focus on developing her working dogs practice there. Meanwhile, Tanja’s daughter Tiia Karpela has been appointed Partner in her mother’s company and has relocated permanently to Finland to work alongside her mother.

The training programs at Martha & Friends will continue as normal, as during her tenure here, Tanja has had three members of our team in training to become instructors, with Lena Mertens, Artur Bonarski and Perrine Capello ready to receive their diplomas after a full year of training. They will be working as a team, with Artur and Perrine supporting Lena in addition to their day care duties. We are happy also that Tanja will continue to guide them from Finland, and even more so as she will lead our Pro Trainer Course for our clients which runs here in Luxembourg from September until February 2025.

Our training programs, as before, will be include programs and workshops held by our Guest Trainers with some exciting new seminars and workshops to be announced soon!

Read on for more information on our upcoming training schedule, and information about our grooming salon.