Izaskun Arrieta

My full name is Izaskun Arrieta and yes, judging by my very basque name and surname, I was born in the Basque Country, Spain where I did my bachelor in Law at the University of Deusto. After graduating I obtained my Diplôme d'études spécialisées en droit international et européen à l' Université Catholique de Louvaine La Neuve, Belgium.

One would have expected for me to pursue a career in law but instead immersed myself in the area of cooperation policy and business internationalisation in Mexico. I’ve also worked for the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry, Dublin City Council as its International Projects Officer and in Research Administration at University College Dublin.

The truth is that I would have liked to become a vet and even though I deviated (a bit) from that road, I pursued a PGDip in Animal Behaviour Counselling (University of Southampton, UK) which allowed me to set up a Dog training and behaviour practice through which I helped 1500+ dogs and their families.

I understand that I was changing each dog’s life for the best but I wanted to exponentially increase my impact on a greater number of dogs (and people) so I developed an online dog training course but still, I had to reach an even bigger number of dogs and so the opportunity to join Eurogroup for Animals came and here I am working as its Programme Officer for Cats & Dogs.

Lastly and since I never get tired of learning in general and in particular about Animal Behaviour and Welfare I am currently pursuing my MSc in Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law at the University of Edinburgh.

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