MISSION

The Allegiant Canine Motto is "Let Them Be."  We believe that a majority of the behavioral issues that we're seeing are due to dogs being under constant restraint and not given enough biological fulfillment. The opposite end of the spectrum is doing too much! Dogs need time to do nothing at all, whether that is on your couch or in a crate. But if a dog is always behind a fence, on a leash, in a crate, or otherwise not trusted to interact with the world, they will be frustrated, not fulfilled. We have to find a balance between the two! True reliability and control are marked by a dog's ability to be Free! My own personal dogs almost never wear a collar or leash, even in public, with high distractions. This is not because I have corrected them into submission or dominated them. It's because I see them, I accept them, and I fulfill them. They are dogs, not children. They are aggression and arousal on legs. They are hunters and herders. 

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My Mission is to remind dog owners that they purchased a tool of the universe that for thousands of years has been eviscerating their prey and their enemies using their teeth. If you think this is not still surviving under the surface of your dog, take our Language of Play course about developing coherent play tactics with your dog. You've probably heard "Possession is 9/10ths of the law." This is also true with play. If I have a dog that cannot or will not tug, I have a dog that is not comfortable and confident. I usually will not play fetch with a dog that does not first tug. This is the ultimate test of a dog's self image and fulfillment. If you are uncomfortable with that, you're scared of your own dog. This happens all the time. 

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I hear the stories constantly of someone who has had the dog since they were 8 weeks old, bought from a "breeder" who they met at a Walmart in a neutral location, they said they're purebred but they don't have papers, they have their shots but they were done through tractor supply. And the dog has never been off the leash in their life. They have never tasted the sweet freedom of running at full speed in an open field chasing rabbits, digging for moles, or fetching a chuck it ball. You have literally created an aggressive dog by not remembering what the universe created them to be. They didn't change. They were always this. This is the biggest crime of them all: to have taken responsibility for an animal that you do not remotely understand or appreciate or accept.

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If we simply let dogs be dogs, we will see that most trainers create their own issues and get paid for solving them. This is a huge problem in the dog training industry. We often make "prediction errors" as a result of our lack of trust, holding our dogs back from living life. If we actually train the dog, we can teach protocols on meeting other dogs and people  and just being normal! I think probably the most revealing dog interactions I've had were with street dogs from the streets of Georgia, next to Russia. They lay outside cafes and run through parks, and they coexist in great multitudes in peace and harmony. If you feed them, they will "pack up" around you and protect you for the day. Same thing goes for dogs in Athens, Greece, Istanbul, Turkey, and even in South America and Africa. 

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If we can give them time to be in pack drive, prey drive, and hunt drive, eventually they will rest! My mindset is try giving your dog 5 mins of each of these things a day: freedom at the end of a 50 ft long leash, play with a tug in a new place, and use one meal a day for obedience shaping. That's 15 mins total for the whole day. Most people should be able to do that. More importantly, this will also indicate to the dog that YOU are the one who tells them "What Time It Is." Is it time to be free, to play, to work, or to rest? Which is it? I will show you how to catch the natural rhythm of your dog so that you can get the most out of them and have zero behavioral issues in the home, even with a larger pack.

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METHODS

There are so many dog training approaches out there that it can be overwhelming to choose how to train your dog. At Allegiant Canine, our goal is to make the simple, universal truths of canine behavior available to everyone who is sincere and serious enough to get all the answers. 

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Ultimately, I think most people are over the obsession with positive only or force free training. In my experience, it's not actually what it says it is anyways. It's a marketing tactic at best, and an attempt at ideological subversion at ​worst. I have worked with a lot of trainers who identified as +R/FF who saw how I trained and saw the seriousness of the dogs that I have trained and immediately started distancing themselves from their old ideologies.

 

Why don't I get attacked by them on social media? Because I show love for them and compassion and I show literally every part of the process. I am insanely transparent. It will happen one day without a doubt that someone will say something about a correction or an instance where I used pressure and say "Why did you have to / choose to do that?" And I will answer them "Payment, Pressure, Prevention, and Punishment are all part of life. If you don't believe that, then you wouldn't have sent that message."

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Let's get real - dog training is not complicated. There are certainly nuances based on training the dog for where it's going, which Larry Krohn says all the time. This just means preparing the dog to live inside of the lifestyle of their home and their owners, but also equipping and coaching the owners to get the same results as you do, with the same confidence you have, aiming for freedom and connection, not suppression and control. If I do my job properly, I will gain stability and motivation through the connection of teaching freedom and play.

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Many of my puppy clients have literally never had their dogs on the leash. Many of my off leash clients haven't used the ecollar in years. It's really just there to show others visually that they have their dog under control. I am getting more conflicted about what to call myself in the dog training world because there immediately becomes this Us vs. Them mentality where people want to position themselves against you. I have called myself a motivative, holistic, and a balanced dog trainer. They're all true. I try to find ways to remove or minimize conflict, increase cooperation, and clear miscommunication or misunderstanding. 

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 If you train with me, I will probably surprise you in things that I allow or disallow my dogs to do, and sometimes you'll be shocked at how simple I make the solution. In general, I simplify the environment to maximize space for you as the owner, we set a game plan to train the dog, and then we execute on that plan together. It's a relationship, and it is science-based, but I don't call myself that because that is dog trainer jargon. To you, I'm Matty, the Canine Coach. To your kids and your dogs, I'm Uncle Matty. Let's train some dogs together, and you can get to know me better. My YouTube and Instagram are full of videos if you have any doubts.

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Matt Burnett

Owner, Allegiant Canine

Founder, Matty's Misfits