Allie Sutton is the Owner and Lead Trainer at Legend Retrievers & Working Dogs, with 15 years of experience in the pet industry
Allie began her career in the U.S. Air Force and later became a police officer where she worked for 3.5 years. Allison knew early on that, though law enforcement was a worthwhile profession, it wasn't her calling. During her time with night shift patrol, Allison worked with the K-9 unit and immediately realized that dogs were her passion.
Allie began to study under a professional dog trainer as an apprentice for about a year while she continued working as a police officer, learning the concepts of basic and advanced obedience. During this time, Allison also fostered dogs from the City of Austin Animal Center. She asked for the worst behavior cases in the shelter and spent 3 months to a year rehabilitating each dog and then worked to get it adopted. Allie felt like her skills were most needed with these severe behavior cases and also found that if she could rehabilitate these--the toughest dogs in the city--that working with other dogs should come much more naturally. Over the 5 years that Allie ran this rescue program, she successfully rehabilitated and found homes for over 10 dogs.
After her first year of apprenticing Allie knew that this was the profession for her. Allie left law enforcement to co-own a professional full-time gundog training facility. She co-operated this 30-dog facility, advancing her skills in obedience, learning retriever training concepts, running dogs in hunt tests, and breeding and whelping. She learned blood trailing training and antler shed training, and because of her experience with the rescues, she was typically assigned the most challenging cases in the kennel for training. In 2014, after 4 years of co-ownership, Allie decided to strike out on her own and pursue her unique dog training interest, creating Legend Retrievers &
Working Dogs.
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Allie also operates a photography business, specializing in sport dog photography. In 2014 Allison traveled to Corning, California as the official photographer of the Master Nationals. Allison's favorite part of her photography business is photographing her customer's dogs in training.
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Since starting her business in 2014 Allie has operated in Lexington, College Station and now Kyle, just south of Austin. At her peak she operated a 30 dog Gundog and Hunt test Kennel on 22 acres in College Station, with 1 full time and 3 part time employees. This business model just felt too big- depersonalized, so in 2020 Allie moved into the city and downsized her program, no more employees- just hands on, every day with the dogs. She now only accepts 3-4 dogs at any given time for training, because of her proximity to the city and training opportunities the dogs complete obedience training in city parks, at home improvement stores and local coffee shops, this ensures that your dog isn't just capable of being obedient in an open field with no distractions. But, can respond consistently and confidently in high stimuli environments, providing customers with a more complete finished product.
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Over the years Allie discovered that her speciality is working with fearful, insecure dogs. Through advanced canine nervous system regulation techniques, she has the ability to build safety, security and comfort in high stimuli or environments that the dogs previously found to be concerning.
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Around this time Allie began transitioning her program towards Service and Therapy Dogs, where she advanced her skills in communicating with dog owners and handlers. Allie began to see that much of a dog's ability o regulate it's nervous system is dependant upon how we regulate ours, and so a new chapter was born. Allie began to study and participate in nervous system regulation trainings, brining new techniques to her practice and providing insight to customers struggling with regulating their pet's emotions as well as their own.
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In 2018 Allie became an AKC Hunt Test judge, she is currently a Master level judge and has enjoyed travelling around the country for these assignments. She qualified for the 2018 Master National and Participated in the 2018 International Grand and the Super Retriever Series.
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Allie is passionate about canine brain science and is constantly pushing herself to have a better understanding of dogs and how their brains and bodies work, which is what prompted her to start her podcast- Diary of a Dog Girl. In her podcast, she covers everything from breeding, to behavior, brain science and advanced behavior technique.
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