Meet the Owner
Matthew Burnett is the Owner of Allegiant Canine Coaching in Chapel Hill, TN. He was born and raised in Texas, on a cattle farm with all manner of stray dogs and dreamed of becoming a military war dog handler through the United States Air Force. When Matt's dreams were shattered by an asthma diagnosis, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English, with a Minor in Bible from Freed-Hardeman University and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Matt enjoys music, hiking, travel, horseback riding, DIY home improvement, learning Ukrainian, and bourbon whiskey. He and his fiancee Mariya live in Middle Tennessee with their American Bully, Mila. They enjoy working in their garden and making incredible food and look forward to getting married, having children, and traveling the world together!
Mr. Burnett formerly served as a Training Director for Rural Animal Rescue Effort, a General Manager for Global K9 Protection Services, and as a Sheriff's Deputy for Williamson County Sheriff's Office. He has traveled to 29 countries for dog rescue, rehabilitation, and training. Burnett has handled working dogs, sport dogs, gun dogs, herding dogs, feral dogs, wolf and coyote hybrids, and also hundreds of family pets. When Matt started training dogs full time, he trademarked the name Allegiant Canine, to pay homage to the sense of duty, loyalty, and commitment that a dog trainer should have to the client and their dog. The motto "Training Dogs Together" would represent his collaborative efforts to rehabilitate dogs alongside their owners, in the environment where behavior would manifest.
Today, Matt lives by the motto "Leading with Play," as most dog training companies use a lame series of robotic drills from the same cookie-cutter canine behavior schools. He believes that control and compliance should never come before connection and cooperation. The #1 metric one should be looking for in dog training is fruit on the tree: hands-on experience with hundreds of dogs of all ages, breeds, dispositions, and origins. There are plenty of trainers and "behaviorists" out there who have never successfully rehabilitated a single dog. Yet they continue to take clients and offer courses to dog owners and even other trainers because of their clout, physical appearance, social media presence, and marketing skills.
Reputation is everything. Over the last 8 years since its inception, Allegiant Canine has undergone over 325 dramatic behavioral turn arounds and trained hundreds of dog-handler pairs in off leash obedience and biological fulfillment. We are exceptionally good to our client family and focus on delivering deep, long-term results through conscientious behavior modification, belief system rehabilitation, biological fulfillment, and boundaries enforcement in the home. Mr. Burnett believes a majority of what we do is about changing the human habit and thought processes. The dog training part should and will be incredibly easy and fun. While he still hates being on social media, Matt attempts to use it as an educational and motivational tool to see dogs as they are and to give them more of what they really need - freedom and play!
