Vanessa Wheeler

Vanessa (she/her) has been involved in the dog world since 2010 with roles like volunteer dog walker, volunteer manager, staff kennel attendant, dog sitter, and foster parent. She cites her most notable experiences as: joining several of her rescue friends out of state assisting in dog fighting confiscation efforts (#367), interning at the Humane Society of the United States in their state legislative affairs department, presenting her Master of Public Health thesis "Breed Specific Legislation: Does policy equal prevention?" at the largest annual public health conference, becoming a founding member of the Pittsburgh, PA based non-profit, The Proper Pit Bull, and finally, as a full time professional dog handler to a specially trained Canine Advocate named Nelly for a local victim services organization. The lessons she learned in this position greatly influenced her approach to group training classes where she has been a lead instructor since 2019. Continuing education has always been important to Vanessa and she is grateful for the dogs that are always willing to teach her something new. While she may not have her official certification (yet), she appreciates that quality content continues to become more accessible for others like herself and is inspired by the work being done in the force free world. At the heart of it all lies her dogs: Belle (2019), Henry (2020), Sasha (2021), Nelly, and Keisel. Vanessa currently lives in Pittsburgh with her best boy, Keisel, and also works in public health research.