About Michelle

Michelle Dunlap is North Central Florida's Pit Bull Behavior Expert. She is the director of Phoenix Animal Rescue and the co-instructor for Totally Pit Bull.

I began my training career in 1999 with Shaker, my Norweigan elkhound. As I immersed myself in training Shaker, we began participating in agility competitions together. When Shaker needed a buddy, I adopted a pit bull named Chance. Upon meeting Chance, I thought he was a white boxer mix because he was so sweet and I had only heard horrible things about pit bulls. Luckily, there were a log of nice pit bulls in my area and my research led me to understand how fabulous pit bulls are. Thus began my career in rescue and interest in pit bulls.

As a thank you to the rescue group who pulled Chance from the shelter, I asked to foster dogs for them. I found it incredibly rewarding to see so many dogs find wonderful homes, and Shaker and Chance loved the constant flow of playmates.

I started working with local rescue groups and eventually started my own rescue group - Phoenix Animal Rescue - to be able to pull more pit bulls from area shelters.