Experience Matters
Meet Professional Dog Trainer Don Coltenback
For Pet Parents:
I have spent more than 30 years as a professional dog trainer, both directly with pet parents and with several large rescues, helping to make their pets more adoptable and adaptable.
For Rescues & Shelters:
Rescues don’t fail because they don’t care.They struggle because behavior, safety, and structure aren’t fully aligned. That’s fixable.
I work with animal rescues to immediately improve:
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Dog handling safety and bite prevention
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Behavioral assessment and decision-making
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Volunteer and staff consistency
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Enrichment systems that actually reduce kennel stress
This isn’t theory—it’s operational. It’s designed to work in real shelters, with real constraints.
If your team is dealing with:
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Dogs deteriorating in kennels
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Inconsistent handling
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Safety concerns
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Burnout from constant crisis management or you just want to improve your current structure.
Then it’s time to bring in structure that supports your people and your dogs.
I work with animal shelters and rescues to improve day-to-day operations, safety, and outcomes for dogs and staff. A lot of organizations are doing incredible work, but they’re often stretched thin—staff and volunteers don’t always have consistent handling techniques, behavior plans vary from dog to dog, and that can lead to stress, burnout, and even liability issues. What I do is come in and help create structure and consistency.
I develop standardized behavior plans for dogs so everyone—from staff to volunteers—is on the same page. I also train teams on safe handling, reading dog behavior, and basic training techniques they can realistically apply in a shelter environment. The goal isn’t to add more work—it’s to make things smoother, safer, and more predictable. That usually leads to fewer incidents, better adoptability, and a more confident team. I can tailor everything to your organization, whether you need a full operational overhaul or just targeted staff training sessions.
