Karin Pienaar

COAPE International Partner. 

DipCABT (COAPE) OCN, CertCAB, CABTi Practitioner, C.A.B. ICAN, C.C.A.B. 

Karin has been working in the field of animal behaviour therapy since 1997 after studying in the UK, where she completed her Diploma in Animal Behaviour with what was then COAPE UK.  She is a member of both the CABTi and ICAN and is a Certified Animal Behaviourist (C.A.B.), a partner in COAPE International and a published author.

After more than 25 years of consulting with dog and cat owners, Karin now focuses mainly on managing COAPE International, presenting parts of the COAPE Diplomas and MHERA™ Practitioners course, as well as lecturing extensively at conferences on animal emotionality both locally and internationally.  She developed the industry changing MHERA™ method which is used to monitor and improve emotional and behavioural wellbeing in animals.  MHERA™ can be applied on mammals and birds, in a variety of different environments, from captive wildlife facilities to the domestic pet setting. Her book “Mood Matters: MHERA: An innovative assessment approach to animal emotionality in the treatment of behaviour problems” was published in 2023 by DogWise in the U.S.A.  Karin is the Behaviour Consultant to numerous pet companies such as Eukanuba and Ascendis Animal Health and is a regular contributor to several local and international magazines, as well as appearing on television and radio regarding animal behaviour matters. 

She heads the Enrichment Partnership Program between COAPE International and several captive wildlife facilities, where she spends her time to develop bespoke enrichment programs to promote the behavioural and emotional health of the animals, as well as implementing consent-based training to facilitate stress-free husbandry and medical procedures in captive wildlife. The captive animal project provides the unique opportunity to apply COAPE’s MHERA™ and ESTA™ techniques to a huge variety of animal species, with great success to date.  She is also part of the South African Government’s task team whose focus is on creating awareness surrounding the safe ownership of pitbulls and education in animal behaviour.

When she has time to spare, she consults on particularly challenging cases and works as an Expert Witness in legal cases involving Animal Behaviour.