Meet the Owner
Matt Burnett is the Owner of Allegiant Canine Coaching and the Founder of Matty's Misfits, a non-profit that provides free training, handling, marketing, boarding, and promotion services for at-risk dogs with misunderstood bite histories. Matt was born and raised in Texas, on a cattle ranch 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, Matty (as his family knows him) 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. (boring)
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But during the Fall Semester of his senior year of College, Matty traveled to Europe for a study abroad program and fell in love with the indomitable Belgian Malinois. Handling, transporting, and even some assistance in training over an 8 year period taught him everything he needed to know to get started. After working with dogs all over the world for free, he decided to get involved with the local animal shelter to serve an under appreciated segment of the canine population: Shelter Dogs. Matty 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, Matty was able 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 for free, working with protection dogs, selling them to clients all over the world, mapping out the learning system, exploring what dogs need to learn and in what order.
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This was during the time that YouTube exploded with videos from Bart Bellon, Larry Krohn, Michael Ellis, and Ivan Balabanov. Each of these trainers brought something different to the table, and Matty learned that Ego had no part in dog training and rehabilitation. In fact, his own approval seeking had created a rift in his life, caused the end of a marriage, isolation from family, and pretty serious workaholism. Over a decade of recovery, Matty no longer wanted approval but instead wanted to make a difference by showing results. He invested in training from all the greats and considers himself to be a lifelong learner, hungry for new information and eager to test it out.
When Matty 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 both client dog and owner. He had seen so many sheisty trainers fleecing clients for money and delivering dog shit 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, not to mention trained thousands of dog and handler pairs in off leash obedience and in home behavior. Nashville is an area heavily inundated by dog trainers already. There are about 30 per county in this area, so he knew that he needed to be really, really, exceptionally good to the clients and their dogs.
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Allegiant Canine was once a full-on facility with employees, a kennel, and a ton of overhead. Then Matty moved into the rescue house at Rural Animal Rescue Effort after falling in love with the president of the rescue and stayed there for 4 years rehabilitating animals, training dogs, and supporting adopters as the Training Director. Today, single and free, he is living in an apartment with his three dogs, Mila, Milo, and Wyatt, keeping his eyes peeled for a property and a partner to start over with. Matty lives a very minimalist life, full of peace and joy, friends and peers. He considers "going nomad" and living out of his converted Chevy Suburban sometimes and gets the itch to travel. He enjoys horseback riding, hiking, music, spending time with family who moved up from Texas, and of course hitting the mean streets of Columbia with his two rescue Pitties and heeler.
The future of Allegiant Canine will be one of rescue, recovery, and new beginnings. 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 no reason. 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 and Togetherness are our primary motivations working with clients, and we will seek to do our best each and every day.
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