Author of the best-selling books: ‘Do Cats Need Shrinks?’ and ‘Do Dogs Need Shrinks? Peter is a behaviour / marketing consultant to Nestle Purina PetCare and the European licence holder for the patented Gentle Leader® Headcollar training system for dogs.

He leads ‘behind the scenes’ special safaris observing the behaviour and studying the ecology of African Wild Dogs, big cats and elephants first hand with biologists and vets in the field.

She is an international speaker and is well known for her work in the assistance dog training industry, being the world leader in the training of Emergency Response Dogs for people with epilepsy and other complex medical conditions. Val has many years experience in the training and rehabilitation of problem dogs and horses and is an expert in the effects of diet on canine behaviour, rehabilitation and training. Val has written a number of booklets on canine behaviour and training and is co-author of several research papers.

Val divides her time between running a Boarding Cattery, training her 2 horses, teaching, lecturing and running a mentoring scheme for students wishing to specialise in training dogs for people with disabilities and special needs.

Robert has also spent time in industry as a management consultant and IT specialist and as a trainer to the veterinary and allied professions. He is the website designer and manager for the COAPE websites.

Along with his wife, Lorna, he is co-author of the must-have book, ‘Dogs - a startling new understanding of canine origin, behaviour and evolution’.

Indeed, Ray and Lorna have developed the modern theory of how dogs evolved by natural selection. The most consensus view is that people domesticated dogs but the Coppingers question that. By investigating dogs in places like the Mexico City dump they gather information to support their argument that dogs evolved as one of the all time succesful scavengers. Dogs wild behavior is that of a village scavenger, but often dogs like those Mexico City Dump have their behaviors shaped by the environment they find themselves in. Humans adopting dogs from these background sources have continued to shape them further into diverse forms making them on the one hand the most successful wolf ever known and on the other hand something interestingly bizarre.

As a co-founder (with Ray) of the Livestock Guarding Dog Project in 1977, Lorna began fifteen years as research associate/outreach specialist at Hampshire College. She and Ray have studied working dogs throughout the U.S. and Europe. They imported dozens of guardians for a breeding program for the U.S., and credit these specialized breeds with providing the spark for their subsequent ethological research.

Kirsty has a lifetime of experience with dogs, cats and horses and has bred and shown Lakeland Terriers successfully for the last 20 years. She has also lived and worked in Africa and the Middle East working in Human Resources in the construction industry were she became involved with ‘village dogs’ around the construction sites.

Her fascination for how dogs behave began here, and then she ‘discovered’ wolves and studied their relationship with the modern dog. She now regularly visits Yellowstone National Park in the USA to study wolf behaviour and leads study groups there to observe the wolves and experience a truly wild ecosystem.

As a member of the Professional Speakers Association, Kirsty gives presentations to high level industry clients both at home and overseas on topics such as ‘Working as a Team’, where she often uses the wolf pack’s social structure and organisation as an example. She is also a former member of the British Olympic sailing team.

Jo worked for Cedar Veterinary Services for 25 years, initially as head nurse and then from 1994-2008, as a full time professional referral pet behaviour therapist and dog trainer, latterly at their Canine Care Centre. Her puppy socialisation groups were one of the first in the country to be attached to a small animal veterinary surgery, and her canine behaviour rehabilitation classes helped set the standard of best practice in this challenging field.

Jo now works full time as a lecturer in animal behaviour, animal care and veterinary nursing at Kingston Maurward College in Dorchester, Dorset where she runs a variety of courses for a wide range of students.

He has trained as an instructor and has over five years experience teaching both teenagers and adults.

He has worked for a number of years for Wood Green Animal Shelter and also with the RSPCA. When he is not running his own practice or tutoring courses for COAPE, he works for a number of local charities as a volunteer. As a COAPE Practitioner and part of Val Strong’s Practice, Dave is involved in a mentoring scheme teaching people with disabilities how to teach their own dogs to assist them both in the home and in the community.

Dave has two dogs, Lily, a 4 year old English Springer Spaniel and Alfie, an eighteen month old Border Collie x Australian Shepherd.

Sue was one of the first trainers in the UK to become qualified in the Syn Alia Training System method of animal training and communication.

She has her own dog training club which has been running since 2005.

Sue has 5 dogs Lara, an 11yr old GSD, Squidgey, a 10yr old BC, Mushy, a 5yr old JR, Nook a 4yr old Australian Shepherd and Reef, the baby of the family in the form of another Aussie, she enjoys their companionship, playing around with competitive obedience and trick training.

Vivian has had animals all her life which started with the acquisition of a pony at the age of six years. Her career started when she qualified as a horse riding instructor in 1978 with The British Horse Society and ran a riding school for several years. Vivian has owned and been involved with several businesses some that have not been animal related, but now focuses more on dogs and their training and behaviour. Viv is also author of 'The Greyhound and Lurcher Pet Dog Training Guide' booklet.

A few years ago, what started as a little research on small dogs became an obsession for the Chihuahua and now Vivian owns and breeds her eight pet Chi’s as a hobby. She also has Fitz the German Shepherd and Max the Border Collie.

Vivian now spends most of her time at the centre organising training classes, courses, consultations, students and the retail pet shop with the help of a great team of staff and volunteers.

Karin Landsberg DipCABT
Karin has been working in the field of animal behaviour and behaviour therapy in South Africa since 1997. She successfully completed her COAPE Diploma in 2007 and was then assessed and duly qualified as a COAPE practitioner in 2008.

She worked as a behaviour therapist for 9 years in Cape Town, but then moved to Johannesburg in 2007. There she established the highly successful ThinkingPets Behaviour Practice which now has numerous franchised dog training facilities and behaviour practices throughout South Africa.

Karin treats feline and canine behaviour problems on a daily basis, as well as offering puppy and clicker training classes and a range of education courses. In 2008 ThinkingPets was licensed by COAPE to offer the Feline CO3, the Canine CO4 and the Advanced Diploma courses in Africa, which Karin and her ThinkingPets partner Niki Elliott are already running with great success.

Andrzej Kłosiński MA DipCABT
Andrzej holds a masters degree in human psychology and worked for many years as a professional psychotherapist in Poland. As a result, he developed a great interest in the human-companion animal bond and began studying, and then working as a companion animal behaviour therapist in 1999. He successfully completed his COAPE Diploma in 2005 and duly qualified as a COAPE practitioner in 2007.

Andrew treats feline and canine behaviour problems on a daily basis, as well as lecturing on animal behaviour and presenting seminars on behaviour therapy throughout Poland. He also writes regularly for the leading Polish dog magazine, Moj Pies, and for veterinary magazines and journals, and he is widely consulted by the Polish media on companion animal issues.

Andrzej established his Behaviour Practice in 2000 with partners Jacek Galuszka and Ewelina Wlodarczyk, and together they now offer a wide range of both practical and theoretical education programmes in Poland, many of which are also available for students anywhere in the world who wish to study in Polish. Their course range includes licensed COAPE correspondence courses and the residential COAPE Advanced Diploma which was first presented in Poland 2008 with huge success.

For more information about COAPE Poland Click Here