Meet Matt Chan, KPA CTP, CAWA

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matt Chan, KPA CTP, CAWA a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Thanks so much for having me today. Well first: the better I got at what I do–animal welfare and training & behavior– the better and clearer I have cultivated my purpose. That purpose has continually become more defined and strategic over the course of decades.

My purpose is to continually elevate how we logically, knowledgeably, and compassionately integrate domestic animals and people together. The way it currently occurs results in many unwanted, mistreated, and euthanized animals across the US. I want us to elevate beyond that.

My strategy is to solve issues at their origin. I started working professionally in animal welfare in 1999, and since then have been able to increasingly fine-tune how I get to the root of the challenges we face in the field.

And to help solve at the origin, I created my own dog and cat training business, Los Lukes. We established in 2023 in the California Central Coast, and have helped hundreds of dogs, cats, and their guardians in the past two years.

I believe that one of the greatest frontiers we have in solving unwanted animal surrenders and in reducing unnecessary euthanasia of domestic animals in the US is through the investment and deployment of professional dog training and cat behavior consulting. It’s such an untapped, unwielded power, and those of us who are in animal welfare absolutely must devote our resources towards it.

Los Lukes specializes in day training, 1-on-1 training, and behavior consulting, for dogs and cats both. We seek to keep families together by helping them understand their animals’ behavior; how to manage their animals; and ultimately, how to manage themselves better. And we work to help people know what they’re getting into before they get a new dog or cat, through our social media, and through our first book, publishing in Summer 2025.

So much of what we spend valuable resources on in animal welfare is geared towards waiting for problems that we already know will occur, and then reacting to them. As a profession, we need to understand that getting to the root of each issue is the best way to solve them; not reacting to them after the fact. And that is what drives me.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

After beginning in my field in 1999, I’ve since served in senior animal welfare leadership since 2009. In total, this year 2025 is my 19th year in the field of animal welfare and behavior & training. I’m a Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA) via The Association of Animal Welfare Advancement, a preeminent organization dedicated to developing leaders, and growing and unifying the profession.

And I’m a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP) via Karen Pryor Academy. KPA as well is one of the premier leaders in dog training in the world, and develops some of the most knowledgeable, humane dog trainers we have.

Dog training is still an unregulated field. We need to help the general population of dog guardians understand that people who don’t know any better–and are thus at-risk to use inappropriate and painful methods to train dogs–can advertise themselves as dog trainers. But it’s the major-credentialed Certified Dog Trainers who will have been trained using scientific, humane, compassionate methods. These credentials include:

KPA CTP (Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner)
via Karen Pryor Academy

CPDT (Certified Professional Dog Trainer)
via The Certification Council for Dog Trainers

CDBC & CCBC (Certified Dog Behavior Consultant and Certified Cat Behavior Consultant)
via The International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants

Surrendering animals, I believe to a great degree, is often caused by a relationship breakdown between owner/guardian, and their dog or cat. The breakdown is often a result of a behavior of the animal, one of which their guardian does not understand, and/or is simply aggravated by, and does not know how to resolve or have the resources to do so.

By the time we see the owner and animal in our shelter or rescue, they might say they are “moving” and can’t keep the animal–but it was the relationship breakdown in the first place that caused them to move to a location where they can’t have an animal. Yet, it manifests in a different way at the shelter than a behavior issue, and we are take our clientele at the surface far too easily.

The guardian needs help solving the problem before they reach the point of deciding to surrender–as easily as if they had a cell phone that’s having a problem they can’t fix. They don’t have to know how to fix cell phones, they just need help with resolving the issue and know some basics of how to keep it operating smoothly.

We need knowledgeable, available, dedicated, humane Certified Trainers who are as easy to reach and find as your cell provider or your Starbucks, and help them solve the issues they’re having; instead of us in animal welfare just surrendering along with the client, as if nothing can be done. It’s a fatalistic quality to just keep going along with it–and keep admitting more animals into your shelter than you can house and rehome safely–instead of being The Answer.

The Answer is the Certified Trainer and the investment in us that comes with that. Strategically, financially, culturally. Certified Dog Trainers, who have studied behavior intensively and have been rigorously examined in their knowledge and abilities, are the next fulcrum to reducing unnecessary euthanasia of animals in the US and beyond.

We have to create an emphasis in each of our communities on the necessity, not the luxury, of training:

“If you have a dog, you’re going to have a Certified Dog Trainer.”

With Los Lukes, I seek to continually put dog and cat training & behavior in front of the people who need it most, making it accessible, affordable, customizable, and relatable. And I hope to inspire more to do the same, with an approach that has similar values in mind for the good of guardians and animals both.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Logic, reasoning, and patient proactivity.

Logic: Thinking carefully, strategically, and knowledgeably through an event, interaction, situation, or challenge.

Reason: Using that logic to decipher an evolved, intellectual response that appropriately and often amicably resolves that event, interaction, situation, or challenge.

Patient proactivity: Using logic and reason with grace and kindness to accomplish your goal and mission.

Car collisions aren’t accidental and unavoidable, so much as they are simply someone either not paying attention, or being incredibly impatient. Not logical, not reasoned; not patient. So much of what I see in the world, online, and in the news, completely skips over these three basic tenets. It leads to great disharmony, and great suffering.

More of society and the human population would behoove ourselves to develop these higher-level abilities and strengths. For anyone who sets their mind to it, reflects upon it, and consciously and proactively develops the frontal lobe towards it, they are all reachable. And people, and the animals whom we entrust ourselves to, will be so much better for it.

You just have to decide that all of those things are something you value.

How would you describe your ideal client?

The values of Los Lukes are: Patience, Empathy, Compassion, and Dedication. I expect everyone I train to value these as well.

Patience with yourself, because it can be hard to learn what we’re training for; patience with the training process, because it can be long; and patience with your dog. They are the only one in the equation who do not speak the same language, and are doing their best to understand what the rest of us are easily communicating to each other about.

Empathy means: Put yourself there. Whatever the situation. Inside a crate. Left alone for hours. Closed inside a room. Living in the garage. Living in the backyard. Tied to a tree. Not properly fed. Not properly hydrated. Being yelled at for not behaving like a human being. Go ahead. Put yourself there.

Compassion: Using your empathy proactively to handle, treat, and provide for with kindness and to alleviate pain or discomfort.

Dedication: Training does not live in a defined box, like a new iPhone; it lives in who you are, who your dog is, and who your trainer is. We don’t know how long it will take to reach great proficiency in a behavior or skill. With true dedication however, you will reach it. The sooner the better, yes. That depends upon you, your dog, and your commitment. And it depends on starting with the best possible trainer–a Certified Dog Trainer.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Matt Chan
Kaylee Davis

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