My name is Shannon Altamirano and I am the owner of Sassy Dog. I am currently running a one woman show. This way I can work out all the kinks while knowing your dogs are being cared for properly and they are in the best hands possible! I was never happy working for someone else and it has always been my dream to own my own business. It took me some time to figure out exactly what type of business it would be, I just knew it had to be with animals.
It’s been a long road to get to this point. I drove a semi truck for about 8 years, moved from Milwaukee, WI to Georgia, and really discovered who I am up to this day. I moved to Georgia in 2013 and a few years later I met my now husband, David, at the trucking company that he still currently works at. I got lucky to find someone who supports this crazy idea of mine. We had our first baby boy, Xander, in January of 2021 and look forward to growing more. Don’t let that scare you away though! I am very driven and motivated and Xander has actually helped me in my dog training experience thus far. Dogs can benefit from learning in a distracted environment and with hearing, seeing, and smelling babies and children. With Xander, I worked up to the day I gave birth working as a dispatcher so if I was willing to do that for a company, imagine what I would do for my own clients!
We have two American Bullies currently who are pretty spectacular. Dominic and Torredo are Xander’s protectors but can be just sweet as pie. Dominic was orginally trained with force training and it really opened my eyes and made me realize that I wanted to help dogs have a better training experience. We then got Torredo and I knew that we couldn’t have dogs this large in size and not have them trained properly. I’m hoping they’ll be able to make friends with some of your fur babies.
I started my education at Animal Behavior College in March of 2020 and after 16 months, I passed my final and am now a certified dog trainer. I did my externship part of my education at a facility where I gained a lot of knowledge and learned the true meaning of positive training. The dog training world is always evolving so I will never know all there is to know but every dog met and worked with is another learning experience. I finally found what I love and what I’m good at and I can’t wait to meet all of you and work with your amazing pups!
