About Casa Monarca
Built for the Dogs Others Won't Work With
The story starts here.
Long before Casa Monarca had a name, it started in a shelter — a high school student walking dogs through town, teaching basic manners, quietly noticing that most of these animals weren't broken. They were just misunderstood.
That student was me.
Volunteering at my local shelter as a teenager lit something in me I couldn't ignore. When I got to college, I began fostering for an overwhelmed shelter in Philadelphia and found myself drawn straight to the behavioral cases — the ones the rest of the team quietly dreaded. I didn't dread them. I asked for more. Give me all the dogs others won't work with.
That became my mission before I even had the words for it.
The dog that changed everything.
There was a dog on death row, Joe. Scheduled to be euthanized — not because he was dangerous beyond saving, but because no one had taken the time to understand him. I took him as a foster. I put in the work. And when his adopters came to pick him up, something shifted in me permanently.
Joe was going to die over something a trainer could fix.
That moment crystallized everything I had been feeling. I had seen it over and over — owners who chose a breed based on looks without understanding what that breed was built for. Puppies whose early behaviors were dismissed as phases they'd grow out of. Then suddenly, a full-grown dog with a full-grown problem, and an owner who felt completely alone, overwhelmed, and out of options. Surrender. Rehome. Or worse.
I knew I couldn't fix every dog. But I knew I could do far more than most were willing to try. Pictured on the left is Joe, the dog that changed everything.
Why I started Casa Monarca.
When I made the shift to full-time dog training in my early twenties, I was determined to help owners get ahead of problems before they started. But I quickly learned that most people don't seek a trainer until they're already in crisis — frustrated, exhausted, and swimming in contradicting advice from the internet and trainers who overpromised and underdelivered.
I saw it up close when I worked for a company in Charlotte that claimed to specialize in behavioral cases. What I found instead were shortcuts. Tools misused. Behaviors suppressed rather than solved. Dogs that looked "fixed" on paper but hadn't actually changed — and owners who had no idea. When I held my ethical boundaries, I was met with pushback.
So I left. And I built something better.
Casa Monarca was founded on one principle: every dog deserves to be treated as an individual. Not a formula. Not a shortcut. A case study.
I approach every dog the way a good doctor approaches a patient — not guessing, not prescribing the same treatment to everyone who walks through the door, but investigating. Asking why. Looking at the whole picture: the dog's history, breed, temperament, drive, environment, and the lifestyle of the family they belong to. Only then do we build a plan.
Anyone can teach a dog to sit. It takes years of hands-on experience across hundreds of breeds, drives, and complex behavioral cases to truly understand what's happening beneath the surface — and to change it.
What I believe.
I believe we are all put on this earth with a specific gift to contribute. Some are good at math. Some are gifted athletes. My gift — the thing I was put here to do — is to help dogs and their humans understand each other.
Not just to coexist. To thrive.
If your dog is struggling, and you're struggling alongside them, you don't need someone to hand you a quick fix. You need someone who will take your dog seriously, honor who they are, and do the real work.
That's what Casa Monarca is here for.
—Shanti, Founder & Head Trainer, Casa Monarca Dog Training
