Meet the Owner
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Matt Burnett is the Owner of Allegiant Canine Coaching and the Founder of Matty's Misfits, a non-profit that provides free training for at-risk dogs with misunderstood bite histories. Matt was born and raised in Texas, on a cattle farm with all manner of stray and feral dogs and had a dream of becoming a military war dog handler through the United States Air Force. When his dreams were shattered by an asthma diagnosis, Matt decided to follow the typical American system of success: go to college, get a job, get married, maybe have some kids, and work till he died.
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As he approached his 30th birthday, he realized that nothing in his career carried any meaning or fulfillment, and he decided to get involved with the local animal shelter to serve an under appreciated segment of the canine population - shelter dogs. Matt became a volunteer at Williamson County Animal Center in Franklin, TN and achieved a "green apron" status very quickly because of countless hours being put in with serious dogs. One afternoon, he was given the opportunity to train with Courtney Robbins, Owner & Founder of Global K9 Protection Services, who would eventually interview him and offer him a job as the General Manager of the company.
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After working for Courtney at Global, Matt began to see how all the pieces of the canine behavior puzzle came together and fell in love with training dogs. He considers Courtney his first mentor, and Global K9 has had a massive impact in Middle Tennessee as a force for training young trainers who go on to start their own businesses. He saw Courtney not being afraid of super dangerous dogs and realized that there was an Art & Science behind dog training that had to be mastered, and it was going to take time. For a few months, he spent all his waking hours training shelter dogs, selling protection dogs, and mapping out the learning system. ​
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This was during the time that YouTube exploded with videos from Bart Bellon, Larry Krohn, Jay Jack, Michael Ellis, and Ivan Balabanov. Each of these trainers brought something different to the table, and Matt learned that Ego had no part in dog training and rehabilitation. When Matt started training dogs full time, he trademarked a new name, Allegiant Canine, to pay homage to the sense of duty, loyalty, and commitment that a dog trainer should have to the client dog, the owner, and to the dog training industry.
By this time, Matt had seen so many shady trainers fleecing clients for money and delivering poor results. Reputation is everything, and he wanted to have a word of mouth referral foundation that would sustain a lifelong career. Over the last 7 years since its inception, Allegiant Canine has undergone over 300 dramatic behavioral turn arounds and trained thousands of dog-handler pairs in off leash obedience and biological fulfillment. Nashville is an area heavily inundated by dog trainers already. There is actually an average of 30 dog trainers per county in Middle Tennessee, so he knew that he needed to be exceptionally good to the clients and their dogs, delivering deep, long-term results by focusing on actual dog behavior, the emotional state, the handler's competence and confidence, and biological fulfillment.
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Allegiant Canine was once a full-on facility with employees, a kennel, and a ton of overhead. Then Matt moved into the rescue house at Rural Animal Rescue Effort and stayed there for 4 years rehabilitating animals, training dogs, and supporting adopters as the Training Director. Today, he is enjoying stress-free living with his three dogs, Mila, Milo, and Wyatt and looking for a property to start a family on. Matt lives a very minimalist life, full of peace and joy, friends and peers. He enjoys finding dive bars and local haunts, horseback riding, hiking, music, spending time with his family who moved up from Texas, and of course hitting the streets of Maury and Williamson county with his two rescue pitties and Australian Cattle Dog.
The future of Allegiant Canine will be one of results, focusing on the long term emotional state of the dog. We will commit to continuously growing our skillset and capacity to serve and be a blessing to those who cannot afford our training in some way. We never have and never will pay for marketing. We will stay true to ourselves on social media and will not get obsessed with going viral or creating content for personal promotion. We will educate on topics like biological fulfillment, reactivity and aggression, and the throw-away dogs epidemic that is sweeping through this country. We will never quit or surrender when it comes to these intense behavioral cases because there are few who are willing to stand in the gap, provide the dangerous training needed, and show the entire process on video. Transparency & Team Work are our primary motivations working with clients, and we will seek to do our best each and every day.​​
