Instructor, Founder of IK9I
Tanja Karpela
Animal Trainer with Specialist Qualification (EAT), Special Detection Dog Trainer, and Instructor. Certified NASDU explosive detection dog handler.
Pioneer
Tanja is a Detection Dog Trainer, Instructor and an Animal Trainer with Specialist Qualification (EAT)
Tanja is a certified NASDU explosive detection dog handler and works in Finland as a trainer and handler of explosive detection dogs. She trains dog-handler teams for professional use across Europe and serves as a trainer in courses and training events. She is an encouraging and reliable coach as well as a well-liked and experienced lecturer.
Tanja is a pioneer in her field, as she has been the first in Finland to train Nature Conservation Dogs for large-scale professional use to help with nature conservation since 2014, at the same time creating a new profession as the first Conservation Dog instructor in Finland.
Conservation Detection 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 has also given the first example that the use of a Conservation Dog can be applied to the search for butterflies and thus contribute to the successful targeting of conservation measures.
Tanja has done surveys with Conservation Dogs, e.g. to private subscribers, associations, forest owners, cities, ELY centers, environmental activities, and Metsähallitus. Close cooperation with various experts and active monitoring of research data are strongly among the principles of Tanja’s work.
An encouraging coach
Tanja emphasizes strong basic skills, strong motivation, persevering, uncompromising search, and uncompromising reliability when training professional working dogs. She makes training plans for working dogs and their handlers with clear and realistic goals, solving complex scent-related training challenges, and always encouraging dog teams to reach their best.