Our Trainer
Meet Alicia Potenza
Alicia is one of A Dog’s World Unleashed dog trainers. Since the age of 18 she has been working with dogs, and at 20 she went to Highland Canine School for Dog trainers. There, she completed the 6 month Master Dog Trainer program.
During her time at Highland Canine, Alicia’s course focused on behavior modification, on and off leash training, trick training, service dog training, bite work/decoy training, police K9 training, detection, search and rescue, trailing and more. Alicia was then chosen to stay an additional 6 months to participate in their internship program. She continued her work with the areas listed above, but took a more focused approach towards the “working dog” side of dog training.
Throughout the years of training dogs, Alicia has put multiple single purpose and dual-purpose police K9 teams on the street. She has trained multiple service dogs that are still actively helping their handlers. Some of those include Mobility Service Dogs, Austism Assistance Service Dogs, and a Hypoglycemia Alert Service Dog. One of her proudest accomplishments includes training a narcolepsy service dog for a young client. The dog, Penny, was taught to actively wake the owner up in the morning with a specific alarm and was able to wake the handler if any sleep attacks occurred. She would do that by pulling on a bracelet on her arm to shake her awake. Penny now lives with their handler as a full-time service dog.
Currently, she has helped many dogs and clients on the South Shore with behavior modification training at A Dog’s World Unleashed. She leads the Canine Good Citizen, and Scent Work classes here as well. Alicia participates in a competition protection and obedience sport called PSA (Protection Sports Association) with her Dutch Shepherd, Karma and her Malinois, Hazzard.
Certifications:
• Master Dog Trainer
• Associate Member of the International Association of Canine Professionals
• American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Evaluator
• Pet CPR and First Aid
Johnny
Johnny is a 7 year old Australian cattle dog that has taught Alicia more about dog training than anyone else. Alicia met Johnny when he was a foster with no home and living at her place of work at the time. Spending a ton of extra time with him, she fell for him. He went into a foster home where he learned a lot of bad habits and started to become defensive aggressive. He was possibily going to be put down and Alicia wouldn't let that happen. She adopted him and brought him with her on her journey through training school. They learned side by side. Rehabing him was the best thing that could have ever happened to her. He is her heart and soul. Johnny is trained in bed bugs detection, he's a great trick dog, he loves an adventure, he's a cuddle bug, and so much more. Alicia says Johnny is her better half that she is forever grateful for.
Karma
Karma is a 6 year old Dutch Shepherd/Belgian Malinois. Fun fact about Karma: she is from the Netherlands! She was imported to Arkansas, meaning she has a passport. Alicia met Karma when she was just about a year old at a previous job where Karma was living in a kennel. She was not getting enough mental or physical stimulation. What Karma really needed was to be living a working dog lifestyle, so Alicia took her in as her own. Alicia taught Karma narcotics detection for five narcotics odors and gave her a better foundation of obedience. Later, Karma and Alicia started doing PSA together, a sport that focuses on competition obedience and protection. They got their PDC (Protection Dog Certificate) together. Karma currently has a PSA1 title and will be competing for her level 2 this September. Karma's biggest nickname is Worm is for her worm like behavior.
Hazzard
Hazzard is a 2 and a half year old Belgian Malinois. He certainly lives up to his name! Alicia always wanted a Malinois to raise from puppyhood and to compete in PSA with. Well, Johnny and Karma happened, but she still wanted a puppy- enter Hazzard, the third dog!
A year after Alicia's grandmother passed, Hazzard was born on her late grandmothers’ birthday in February. It was fate. His name had already been picked out for years. Hazzard is currently training for PSA and later will start narcotics detection. He is the Malinois that Alicia always wanted and waited for, and she cannot wait to see how far he goes! He will be competing for his PDC (Protection Dog Certificate) this September.
