Camellia Saunderson
Animals have always been an influential part of my life. If I look back at childhood photos, I was more likely to be seen socializing with dogs than with people. As I grew, that natural connection strengthened; everywhere I went, dogs seemed to follow me. Today, owners that I consult with are often amazed at how well their fearful, reactive, or aggressive dogs take to me.
I learned at a young age what it meant to rehome a dog, leave them at a shelter, and even have them euthanized. Those were the dogs I wanted to help the most, the ones who did not have anyone advocating on their behalf. In 2012, with the help of my canine sidekicks, Diesel and Buddy, I opened a dog rescue that I poured my heart and soul into it, devoting every piece of me to helping homeless pitbulls find their forever homes.
One of the saddest things I learned while running the rescue was that people will fight to help animals, yet most believe in ‘death before discomfort,' so the dogs who truly need rescuing, the ones with behavioral problems, end up getting forgotten, left behind, or euthanized. This is where I step in.
During my time in rescue, I came across a number of dogs with aggression issues. Through my search to find a trainer who could handle the more serious dogs, I was introduced to Duke Ferguson. When I decided that my human aggressive foster dog of 8 months needed more rehabilitation than I could give him at the time, I sent him to UPK9 for a Board n Train, terrified that he would come back the same dog and I would have to euthanize him. To my delight, he returned a humbled, happy, and confident dog, able to focus on me and ignore the distractions that once triggered him. Unleashed Potential saved his life so he could find his forever home; how could I not want to join their team? In 2014, I packed my bags and took my most recent rescue, Blitz, who had been deemed 'too aggressive to be in society,' and headed to PEI where I trained intensely, one on one with Duke.
Now, years of working with aggressive dogs has led me take a hands off approach to training. This means that I am a pro at training you to train your own dog, so while I am located in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, you could train with me from anywhere.
I currently offer private online sessions followed by the option of lifetime online group classes, and for locals, lifetime group classes in the real world. I offer a variety of programs including bite prevention seminars, canine resistance training, loose leash and attention walking, off leash recall, and more behavior-based lifetime programs that deal with puppy training, behavioral problems, impulse control, reactivity, aggression, manners, obedience and more. These can be done through private sessions and/or boarding and training.