About Coevolved Companion
About Coevolved Companion
2019 - Internship with Endangered Wolf Center (St. Louis, MO), Solid K9 Training Seminar (Reno,NV)
2023 - Jay Jack, Larry Krohn, Joel Silverman seminar (Irvine, CA)
2024 - Michael Ellis School Puppy Cognition Seminar (Santa Rose, CA), Forrest Micke Obedience Seminar (Redmond, OR), Michael Ellis School Kynology 2 Symposium (Santa Rose, CA), Ben Lepinski PSA and Ecollar workshop (Reno, NV), Paul Edward 6 week mentorship
Hi, and thanks for checking out my website! My name is Mazzy and I’ve been a dog trainer since 2015.
I have lived in Reno for my whole life and always grown up with all kinds of animals. Dogs, cats, ferrets, rats, rabbits, even hedgehogs- I’ve had just about any pet you could think of! I didn’t discover my passion for dog training until I got my first dog as an adult, my Dutch shepherd Nyla. She was bred by a local trainer who gave her to me in exchange for helping out at her kennel. I started out at that kennel in 2015 as a kennel tech and slowly worked up to being a trainer before the owner decided to retire in 2016. I then started at local dog training center Dog Gone Amazing, where I would be a trainer for two years before moving up to head trainer in 2018!
But dogs are not the only canid I am passionate about. In 2018, just a few years into my dog training journey, I decided to attend a seminar on wolf ontogeny and pack behavior that was organized by renowned trainer Nelson Hodges, along with biologists and wolf experts Nino Badridze and Regina Mossoti. I am proud to have been one of only a handful of attendees privileged enough to hear the knowledge shared on not only wolf biology, but the evolution of man’s best friend and how understanding the animals they came from helps us to better understand them.
From January - March of 2019, I took a hiatus from dog training to complete an internship at the Endangered Wolf Center in Missouri, where I spent that time doing important conservation work for endangered canids as well as learning training methods used in zoological settings. Mexican Gray Wolves, North American Red Wolves, Swift foxes, and African Painted Dogs are just a few of the species I was privileged to work with (though my personal favorite was Sawyer, the ambassador Virginia Opossum).
Upon my return to Reno, I continued as lead trainer at Dog Gone Amazing, attending a seminar with Jeff Gelman in 2019. In 2021, I decided to take hiatus from training professionally to attend Oregon State University and work towards my bachelors degree in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Ecology. In 2022, I attended the international conference for African Painted Dogs and added to my knowledge of their behavior and of zoological training of large canids. I made amazing connections and now put on a yearly Painted Dog night here in Reno each fall with all money raised going towards the Painted Dog Conservation Collective and Painted Dog Protection Initiative! The picture to the right is of myself and Wilton Nsimango, an ambassador for Painted Dogs who has done conservation work in Zimbabwe with PDC since 2004.
By 2023, found myself dearly missing engaging in my passion: helping dogs and their owners improve their relationships and lives! I decided to attend a seminar with Jay Jack, Larry Krohn, and Joel Silverman in Irvine, California in August to expand my knowledge and get back into the dog world. It reignited my passion for training and I decided to start my own business, founding coevolved Companion in January of 2024!
If you find yourself struggling with your dog, reach out to me! I’d love to bring out the best in your best friend.