Pia's Background
Pharos & Pia ready to go to work.
Pia is the President and Owner of K-9 Insight Obedience, LLC, a company she established in 1995. She has worked with and studied dogs for many years, starting at the age of nine with her own neighborhood dog club in her native country, Sweden.
She grew up around dogs and other animals - always "collecting" "stray" dogs and cats, baby birds, mice, caterpillars, snakes and lizards. She spent every summer on a relative's farm, training pigs and calves to "heel", come when called and do obstacle courses!
From 1977 to 1980, Pia worked part time as a veterinary assistant in the southern countryside province of Smaland, Sweden, assisting the district veterinarian with all kinds of farm animals. During that same period she also worked part time as a farm hand on a dairy farm, milking cows, caring for livestock and delivering calves and baby pigs, as well as harvesting crops and plowing the fields.
Pia moved from Stockholm to the US in 1988. Soon she began volunteering for the Helen Woodward Animal Center and Canine Companions for Independence. In 1992 she got into serious dog training when she started working with her late German Shepherd Atticus in Schutzhund training. Schutzhund training is a German sport and competition that measures the highest level of dog training in tracking, obedience and protection in the world.
In 1999 she came to the Bay Area from San Diego, where she had worked with Day Care For Dogs (the first doggie day care in California), as a consultant and crew member and served as the training director at Alcala Pet Care & Boarding Kennels.
Shortly after relocating to Redwood City on the San Francisco Peninsula, Pia became staff trainer and canine behavior consultant for Planet Pooch doggie daycare. Unique in its kind, Planet Pooch is the Peninsula's Premier Pet Playground, also offering grooming, rescue and adoption, boarding and much more! Pia is also the behavior consultant and staff trainer for You Lucky Dogz doggie daycare in Santa Clara and Paws Place doggie daycare in Morgan Hill.
In Southern California Pia also worked with and was a volunteer for The San Diego Humane Society & SPCA, where she was an active member of the Animal Rescue Reserve (ARR) team, a specialized unit of trained volunteers that rescues horses and livestock, dogs, cats and other household pets in the event of natural disasters and other emergencies. The ARR also provides help to wildlife.
Furthermore, as a reserve member, Pia assisted the San Diego Humane Officers with criminal cases during impounds of groups of abused or neglected animals and, in connection with that, appeared on the local TV news on several occasions. In the summer of '98, Pia was part of the San Diego Humane Society's instructor team that taught PALS Summer Dog Training Camp for kids.
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area Pia is heavily involved with various shelter and rescue organizations where she formally evaluates and temperament tests dogs, as well as for dog-bite cases and hearings.
With a background and a Bachelor's degree in nursing and psychology, Pia not only has an exceptional way with animals, she also has a wonderful way of making people feel comfortable and at ease when learning about dog behavior and training in a relaxed and humorous atmosphere.
In addition to educating dog owners in how to best work with their pets and build lasting bonds, Pia does freelance writing on dog behavior and training for the Swedish dog magazine "FIDO", as well as for the Shore Dogs Newsletter in Redwood Shores, where she also serves as a board member and advisor of the Shore Dogs Dog Club.
An avid equestrian, Pia enjoys horse back riding in her spare time. She shares her home with two German Shepherds, Pharos and Booker, Bingo, a rescued Golden Retriever/Pit Bull mix, one cat and husband, Pat.
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