Mike Pape was born and raised in the Tampa Bay area. At 8 years of age, Mike found his first dog. “Saturday” was named for the day he found him and proved to be a terrific companion and family member for many years.

At age 13, Mike began caring for and training Thoroughbred race horses. By the time he was 16, he had saved enough money to buy his own race horse, a young colt he named “Upset Plenty”. By the time he was 18, Mike was a licensed race horse trainer and his career had taken off. He accepted a position with a top breeder in the United States and went on to win over 200 races. Mike earned recognition throughout the country as a Top Ten trainer.

However, Mike could not escape his childhood love of dogs. He wanted to transfer his horse training experience into training dogs. When he met Wendy in 1985, he got his chance. They combined their individual skills and began professionally training dogs.

Mike has won competitions across the United States in several different arenas. His Flyball racing team has won more than 11 Regional Championships. He and “Ketch” were selected to perform at the Heinz Classic Obedience Shows where this human/canine team earned nationwide press acclaim.

Mike is equally accomplished in training dogs for Herding, Flyball and Obedience, but he also has an incredible ability to train dogs to be great pets. He has been teaching dog training techniques at KETCH since 1995.