PawPeds

Courses

The PawPeds PawAcademy held its first internet course in autumn 2007. We started with courses in Swedish, but now we also give this course in English, German, and Dutch/Flemish. Translations into German and French are on their way.

We plan for a basic course in three steps about cat care and cat breeding. General course step 1, or G1 for short, is mainly about cat ownership. It is basically for beginners, but also for more experienced breeders who later want to take the higher courses.

Step 2 of the general course, G2, is mainly about having a litter but also includes basic genetics and breeding plans.

Step 3, G3, is planned to be more in depth about selective breeding, genetics, physiology, cat food, behaviour, etc. This is for breeders who have had a few litters already and have taken step 1 and 2 of the general course.

Apart from the general courses we also plan to set up breed specific courses eventually, as well as some other types of courses. But first we'll focus on the three steps of the general course.

Present courses

Presently we have the following courses:

The PawAcademy Team

Several people from different countries are doing voluntary work with the PawAcademy and the courses. Some of our course leaders have been breeders for many years, while others have only bred a few litters but have a lot of theoretical knowledge or pedagogic skills instead. Some are cat judges. Some have studied cat related subjects at university level. When planning a course we try to get course leaders who together cover all the aspects of the course.

Those who have been a course leader for at least three courses of a certain type, and have covered most parts of that course, get an owl banner similar to the banners that the participants get when they pass the same course. If a course leader wants to take a course at a higher level, they qualify to take that course if they have either the student banner or the owl banner for the lower courses required.

Meet our course leaders

Here we present our course leaders from the present and the past.

Working with the courses right now:

Ulrika Olsson - Headmaster (e-mail)
G1 Owl G2 Owl G3 Owl Ulrika is the headmaster of the PawAcademy. She has been involved from the start of the project, as it was all her idea. She has written or edited a lot of the course texts, and she is co-ordinating the PawAcademy. She is also leading courses, mostly higher level courses. Her specialties are population genetics, how to breed to avoid genetic diseases, and health programmes. She has studied these subjects a little bit at the university, and then she has been working quite a lot with health programmes, for instance starting the health programmes against HCM and HD that we are working with here in PawPeds. She also has studied pedagogics at the university. Ulrika has been breeding Maine Coons and sometimes Turkish Vans with the cattery name Ylletrollets since the early 1990s. She is an international FIFe judge for category II. She is also giving seminars on various subjects for cat clubs in Sweden and other countries.

Dagny Dickens - Co-ordinator (e-mail)
G1 Owl G2 Owl G3 Owl Dagny is very involved with the courses of the PawAcademy. She has written texts for them, and she has translated and edited a lot! She is also an eager teacher, especially for the genetics section. Dagny has shared her life with Siamese cats for more than half a century. She started breeding Siameses in 1974. Her cattery name is Novarita. She has worked with cat registrations for many years, first for SVERAK and now for a few IDP clubs. She was also in the breed commission of SVERAK for 20 years. Since 1995 she is an allbreed judge. She is one of the two persons who created the EMS system for breed and colour codes. She lives in Vällingby in western Stockholm, Sweden. Dagny's specialities are cat colours and colour genetics.

Misha Peersmans (e-mail)
G1 Owl Misha has also been involved in the PawAcademy from the start, since she happens to be a close friend of the headmaster (who is also known as the slave driver). She has written some course texts, and she has been very involved with the teaching in the courses in other languages than Swedish, as she is very good at languages. She is living in Belgium, with her dogs and cats. Misha is breeding Maine Coons, since 1991, under the cattery name The Dorsai. Misha's speciality is cat and kitten care, but she is fairly allround as long as she doesn't have to deal with numbers.

Ulrika Sörlid (e-mail)
G1 Owl G3 Owl Ulrika is active in the PawAcademy on several levels. As educated biologist she has made good use of her knowledge in biochemistry, cell biology, zoophysiology and population genetics. Ulrika teaches at all levels and has written and edited texts concerning food and nutrition, genetics and anatomy and physiology. Ulrika has a small cattery S*Som Hund & Katt breeding European Shorthairs. Ulrika and her husband lives by beautiful Lake Vättern outside Askersund in Sweden together with dogs and cats.

Diana Verhaegen (e-mail)
G1 Owl Diana started breeding domestic shorthairs in 1997. Soon she wanted to breed pedigree cats instead, so in 2001 she switched over to breeding Maine Coons. She lives in a very small village Schelluinen in The Netherlands. Her cattery name is The Haecoon. Diana is teaching in our Dutch/Flemish course.

Anncharlotte Holsö (e-mail)
G1 Owl G2 Owl Anncharlotte has been breeding Burmeses for many years. She started her cattery Lilla Gråbo already in 1978, so she has long experience with cats and breeding. Anncharlotte lives in Nässjö in the south of Sweden. She is teaching both G1 and G2 courses.

Petra Kerkeling-Sheerin (e-mail)
G1 Owl Petra has always loved cats. 2006 she started a small scale Maine Coon breeding, Strictlycoons. She is particularly interested in cat behaviour and cat nutrition since a number of years, and is always willing to learn more. She studied pedagogics, German, mathematics and crafts for primary school children. She has been teaching children with learning and behaviour difficulties for over a decade now. Petra is teaching in our German course.

Sibylle Nagel (e-mail)
G1 Owl Sibylle has been living with cats since her childhood and started breeding Maine Coon cats together with her husband in 2007. Her cattery's name is GreyGables and her first concern is to invite breeders to join the Maine Coon Health Programmes and to think about outcross breeding. After several jobs (as air hostess, secretary and else) Sibylle managed a database for rare disorders and health problems in children and studied literature and media science at Goethe University, Frankfurt. She is experienced in project management and congress organisation and is completing her Ph.D. thesis on German children's literature. Sibylle is part of the Pawpeds translation team and is teaching the German G1 course since 2011.

Agnes Lou (e-mail)
G2 Owl Lou always has always had animals in life - including cats. She moved in 2004 to Rome, Italy and has the first pedigree cat ever in her life as a family member - a Norwegian forest cat. After some shows and many self studies on internet, she finally found the PawPeds online course. After she completed the first course, she now has confirmed to start breeding Norwegian Forest Cats. Lou's main interested are: cat's nutrition, health, behavior and now genetics.

Åsa Lindkvist (e-mail)
G1 Owl G2 Owl Åsa and her family live in a small village in the countryside outside Skellefteå in the north of Sweden. Åsa bought her first Maine Coon in 1988 when she lived in the UK working as an au-pair, and imported a few females in the early 1990s to start her cattery, S*Guldklimpen's. Apart from the cats, she also breeds sheep and is a passionate bellydancer. You can meet Åsa in our Swedish or English G1 or G2 courses.

Luís Mateus (e-mail)
G2 Owl Luís breeds Norwegian Forest Cats with his wife since 2005, under the name Shadow Eyes. His cattery is based in Cascais, near Lisbon, in Portugal. He is a big fan of Pawpeds since its early days and uses it as tool almost from the start. Ethical and selective breeding are two of his main concerns, but he is also very interested in genetics and feline behaviour. He is a journalist when not around cats and he teaches in our English courses.

Claudia Guidoboni (e-mail)
G1 Owl In 2005 Claudia looked into Birmans blue eyes and got lost in them. She started a small scale Birman breeding, specialising in the red factor, with the catteryname Red'n'Hot in Italy. Learning all she can about cats is her biggest passion and she is particularly interested in genetics. In her professional life she is a project manager in an advertising agency. Claudia is teaching in our English courses.

Rui Pacheco
G1 Owl Rui was born in Portugal but he currently lives in Milan, Italy. He had domestic cats all is life but in 2009 he fell in love with an amber shaded silver Norwegian Forest Cat and decided to buy one. After some research, he discovered there was only a handful of them around the world, so he decided to start breeding amber shaded silver NFO:s under the name Vevelstad. In an effort to learn more about breeding and the breed, he started attending shows and enrolled on PawPeds courses, being involved in helping the project since then. His main interests are ethical breeding and colour genetics. In his professional life he works as website developer and social networks marketing expert, but during his free times you can find him leading our English courses.

Lies Klösters (e-mail)
Lies is very involved in co-ordinating the translations of the courses, and she has also been teaching at the first G1 in English. She has education in animal care and management, and has worked as an animal caretaker in the past. She has a very small scale cattery namned Kindred Spirits, and she lives in the Netherlands.

Paula Holsö (e-mail)
G1 Owl Paula has been active with cats/breeding/showing during a greater part of her life. She is breeding Burmese with the prefix S*Zikitzi's. Paula lives in Malmbäck, a few miles outside Jönköping in southern Sweden.

Anders Ödman (e-mail)
G1 Owl Anders is living outside Varberg on the west coast of Sweden. He is together with his wife breeding Maine Coon cats under the cattery name S*Lady Coon's. The first Maine Coon arrived in the 2002 and they started their cattery in 2005. Anders teaching in both our swedish and english courses.

Machteld Van Nederkassel (e-mail)
G1 Owl Machteld is living in Belgium. She is breeding Siberians and Neva Masquerade with the cattery name Bubastis'.

Jenny Silk (e-mail)
G2 Owl G3 Owl Jenny is living in Göteborg, Sweden, and she is breeding Birmans with the cattery name S*Morrowdim.

Maria Myrland (e-mail)
G1 Owl Maria lives in Knapstad, not so far from Oslo, in Norway. She is breeding Norwegian Forest Cats with the cattery name (N)Mariskogens.

Kajsa Olnéus (e-mail)
G1 Owl Kajsa is the ethologist in the PawPeds team. She studied ethology at the university, and she is particularly interested in cats. She is breeding British Shorthairs.

Worked with courses in the past, some might be back again later:

Ewa Klingberg (e-mail)
G1 Owl G2 Owl Ewa was highly involved at the start of the PawAcademy courses. She wrote parts of the G1 course, and acted as a teacher for several courses. Ewa lives in the countryside not far from Jönköping in Sweden. She has always had cats, and she started breeding Maine Coons in 2002. Her cattery name is S*Birkalunden's. Ewa's specialities are economy and pedagogics. She used to work as a teacher professionally, and has a teacher education.

Stefanie Könemann (e-mail)
Stefanie is into Maine Coons since Spring 1996. Her cattery name is Forestsprite. Stefanie lives in Germany, and is teaching in our German course.

Maud Dickson (e-mail)
Maud has been around in the cat world for a very long time - since the end of the 1960s. Her focus has always been on health and genetics. The veterinarians in the late 60s did not have any training specifically on cats, so the breeders had to study themselves. The fancy was still very small when she started, so she found a niche and built a breed in Sweden, later of course with help from other fellow breeders. She also got involved in all kinds of committees, both locally and in Sweden's leading cat organization. Maud is an engineer but has worked for many years as a teacher (mostly computers) and attended some pedagogic courses. She is breeding British Shorthairs (but she LOVES Siameses) under the FIFe prefix Pirot. There is a lot of information on her website!

Eva Gunnarsson (e-mail)
Eva has been breeding Siberian Cats since 2001 with the cattery name S*Nikopeja's. She is one of the founders of the Siberian Cat association.

Susanne Johansson (e-mail)
Susanne is working at the Swedish Veterinary Institute in the parasitological department at the diagnostic laboratory as biomedical technologist. She is working with analysing and diagnosing parasites that is common in and on all kind of animals in Sweden. Her cat history begins on the farm where she was born with farm cats, and later on it went over to breeding Maine Coon cats. The first litter under the cattery name S*Carpe Feline's was born in 2003.

Roberta Martire (e-mail)
Roberta has been breeding Maine Coon Cats since 2007 with the cattery name Mûres Sauvages in France. She is a socilogist, but she has also education in animal nursery and veterinary assistancy, and has worked with people and team management/ conseling for many years as well as teaching and coaching. Roberta is also part of Pawpeds translation team and she's the registrar of the HCM Health Programme. Roberta is teaching in our G1 English course.

Heike Niederstebruch (e-mail)
Heike has been breeding Maine Coons since 1992 on a small scale. Her cattery name is Geoffreysmanor. She lives in a small town in Germany and has grown up with lots of different animals. Therefore her interests in animal behaviour and genetics already started when she was a child.

Hilde Nesvik (e-mail)
G1 Owl Hilde lives in Norway and has been breeding Siamese cats for 5 years with the cattery name (N) Fuzzy Logic's. She is working as a pre school teacher, with the youngest children in kindergarden. She also also grooms dogs on a hobby basis. She is interested in both cats and dogs, and recently also got an interest in horses. Hilde is interested in learning and loves to teach. She teaches both in the Swedish and English courses at PawPeds.

Merete Steinvik Haugen (e-mail)
Merete is working towards a better general awareness and understanding of each cat's need and potential in life. She is particularily interested in the cats daily motivation and psychological well being. Merete studied the subject "cats" for several years before she in 2009 startet up her little cattery NO*Lille Mjau, breeding British Shorthairs. Merete is an artist, also working with conceptual ways of thinking. As she has experience in teaching at Oslo Univrsity, she has a good understanding of pedagogical ways of dealing with students. Merete lives in Norway, and she is teaching both the English and the Swedish G1 courses.

Helene and Serge Marlot (e-mail Helene, e-mail Serge)
Helene and Serge live in France and have been breeding Sphynx cats for 5 years with the cattery name Chatterie du Clan des Otori. They both work in the pharmaceutical industry, Helene in research and development, Serge in hospitals. They have lived together for 29 years surrounded by cats. They are very interested in finding treatments that contribute to improving the health of cats and kittens. They both like Japanese gardens and Serge loves traveling on a Harley Davidson.