Who is K9-Kristin?
K9-Kristin is a dog trainer from Iceland, experienced in training search dogs for lost people, narcotics and trailing dogs. She has dedicated her life to the welfare of dogs.
Kristín with a trailing dog
Who is K9-Kristin?
K9-Kristín is a dog trainer originally from Iceland. K9-Kristin is known in her home country as Kristin Sigmars and her powers have mainly been in training professional working dogs.
“We have to learn to communicate with our dog through actions and behaviors. Learn through play! Communicate through listening & use hands-free dog training but above all enjoy working with your dog through life!.” - K9-Kristin
In 1996 when Kristin was 16 years of age she decided she was going to be a professional dog trainer, which at that time was an unknown profession in the country. The decision was made after watching a documentary about a team of search dogs within the ICE-SAR Organization.
In 2000, she found her first puppy and began training it as a search dog in 2001. Over the years, she has gained knowledge in training dogs with special emphasis on training working and search dogs. She worked with a call out dog in search and rescue for lost people for 10 years and still works systematically with the organization as an advisor, instructor and assessor for all classes; air scenting dogs and scent specific trailing dogs, rubble search and avalanche search dogs.
Before retiring her SAR-Dog she started working for Iceland´s Directorate of Customs handling search dogs for narcotics, working in the field for 6 years confiscating hundreds of kilos of controlled substances.
She then again returned to the Search & rescue field where she was employed to run a trailing dog unit working mainly in the field of lost persons but also in specific tasks for the police.
She has attended numerous courses regarding dogs and dog training in her home country Iceland and abroad, emphasizing on the field of working dogs, dogs nutrition as well as first aid courses for dogs.
K9-Kristin got a border-collie cross in 2000 and soon after started training with the local search & rescue team. That dog, however, did not prove to be a search dog material, but it however gave her a great insight into how to read a dog’s drive, body language and how it shows interest in work, negative stress and lack of temper. She also learned the hard way how the first months of the dogs life, it´s environmental training and exposures are important for all future. Some believe like Kristin that it´s the difficult cases, the difficult dogs and the mistakes you make that you really learn from.
Kristín has over the years sought after and gained knowledge in training dogs with special emphasis on training working and search dogs.
Interest in the behavior of dogs and behavior science soon arose and in 2010 Kristín began to systematically acquire knowledge in this field. She attended a behavioral training course in 2015.
Kristín was chairman of the Search & rescue Dogs Association in Iceland for 4 years as well as being the associations secretary for 2 years prior. She has worked as an instructor in the training of various search dogs, attended courses abroad, conducted courses in Iceland and imported foreign instructors, she is a qualified assessor of the ICE-SAR for air scenting dogs, scent specific trailing dogs, rubble search and avalanche search dogs since 2007. All work that Kristín has put in the association since 2001 has been volunteer work and for non-profit.
Kristín has had different dog breeds, mainly working dog breeds such as: Labradors Border Collie, English Springer Spaniel, and crossbreeds from those, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever and Bloodhounds. Through her work as a dog trainer she has worked with more breeds.
Originally as a side project Kristin worked as a sales person and later a manager at wholesale and import company Vetis ehf. she was responsible for a pet product range and dog feed. She soon became head of sales and marketing and finally manager. As, she attended courses through her work on the nutritional needs of dogs, she became fascinated in the field and sought all knowledge available. And now has expert knowledge in the feeding of working dogs and dogs in general. She also focused on overweight household dogs but her main goal was always the feeding of working and hunting dogs.
Kristín is very interested in dog behavior, their ability to find different things / materials, their ability to work under pressure and how resourceful a well-trained dog can be. But also the use of dogs for people with behavior and communication problems and as an aid for individuals with special needs, especially children. She has her mind at the moment on choosing dog for different tasks, because some dogs suit better for certain jobs. All dogs can solve tasks, you just have to find its field of interest and it´s strengths and weaknesses.
Kristin with Bruno, both young at age
K9-Kristin Resume:
2020 Opened dog training services worldwide, www.k9-kristin.com 2020 Project Leader for finding and importing a new Bloodhound for Rescue Team Hafnarfjörður
2019 Opened dog training services for the public in her homecountry, www.kristinsigmars.is
2019- ongoing Finance, Sales and Marketing Manager, CEO. En Route, Travel Agency with her husband
2014-2018 Sales and Marketing Manager. Vetis ehf / Belcando Iceland
2017 Project Leader: Importing Bloodhound from Hungary for Rescue Team Hafnarfjörður
2016 Course Bewital GmBH: Canine Nutrition. Feline Nutrition
2015 Retired as a dog handler for trailing dogs at Rescue Team Hafnarfjörður, due to childbearing. Took on responsibility as Project Leader for finding and importing more bloodhounds.
2015 Tracking/trailing dog training course. SAR-Dogs Iceland / Alexandra Grunow.
2015 Dog Behavior I – Seminar
2015 Tracking/trailing dog training course. Rescue Team Hafnarfjörður / Georgia K9, Alis Dobler
2014 Courses Bewital GmBH: Canine Nutrition. Feline Nutrition.
2014 Sales pet products and feed, Vetis ehf, part-time.
2014 Seminar Trailing dogs. Georgia K9 / John Salem, USA.
2013 Assistant assessor for testing of Narcotics dogs. Iceland Directorate of Customs.
2013 Seminar Trailing dogs. Georgia K9 / John Salem, Denver USA. 2013 Seminar Cadaver dogs. Klaas Kids Foundation / Brad Dennis, Denver / Lakewood, USA.
2012-2015 Dog handler in charge of training and call outs, with trailing dog. Rescue Team Hafnarfjörður.
2012 Imported a bloodhound from the USA for Rescue Team Hafnarfjörður
2012 Established En route ehf, Travel Agency in co-operation with OliH Photography
2011 Internship at EFTA, European Free Trade Association, in Geneva, Switzerland. As a representative of Iceland’s Directorate of Customs. 2011 Retired the air scenting, rubble and avalanche search dogs for SAR-Dogs Iceland.
2010 Project Leader for the trailing & bloodhound project. Rescue Team Hafnarfjörður.
2010 Retired as a dog handler at Iceland’s Directorate of Customs. Started at the Legal Department as a Customs Expert on Import duties & Customs tariff. Taught seminars at the Customs Academy: Classification and the Customs Tariff.
2009 Qualified instructor and assessor for search dogs: air scenting dogs and scent specific trailing dogs, rubble search, water search and avalanche search dogs.
2007-2008 Customs Academy: Customs Officer, general customs procedures. As well as training as a narcotics dog handler.
2007 Seminar: Trailing dogs. SAR-Dogs Iceland/ James Gall
2007-2009 Education and training to become an instructor for search dogs: air scenting dogs and scent specific trailing dogs, rubble search, water search and avalanche search dogs.
2006 Started working as a Customs Officer at Iceland’s Directorate of Customs
2003-2011 Dog Handler for SAR-Dogs Iceland. Call out Team specialized in air scenting, rubble search, water search and avalanche search. Seminar duty included.
2002 Seminar: Rubble Search Dogs. FEMA, Reykjavik.
2001-2003 Training Period: Rescue Training I and II for ICE-SAR. Numerous personal courses.
2001-2003 Started Basic training for search & rescue dog handlers with SAR-Dogs Iceland. Numerous dog training courses and training sessions.
Started training to become a qualified search & rescue team member.
2002-2006 Teller & Personal Adviser in a bank: Íslandsbanki.
2000-2002 Substitute Teacher at Elementary Level, at Lundaskóli & Korpuskóli.