Founder’s Story

Wagging Right founder Kelly Cancelmo has been deeply passionate over the last 18 years about working with pets and their families to achieve safety, happiness, great behavior, and teaching kids about pet safety. She is a CPDT-KA Certified Dog Trainer and Certified Canine Nutritionist

In 1987, when she was just 6 years old, Kelly was bitten by the family’s adopted yellow lab mix named Fred. The bite wasn’t small – tearing a hole in her cheek, bottom lip nearly missing from her face and covered in blood, she was rushed to the hospital by her family and underwent surgery at Paoli Memorial Hospital. 

30 years later, she’s faced her fears head-on. She became a Certified Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) and a Certified Canine Nutritionist. As a pet industry professional, she specializes in working with bully breeds, dog reactivity, as well as canine aggression. She’s a proud pitbull owner and has owned many large breeds over the years, particularly Mastiffs. 

After having her sons and growing concern over their own safety and wellness (especially with them often meeting clients’ dogs during her work as a trainer), Kelly knew the importance of teaching her own kids about pet safety and responsible pet ownership. This soon stemmed into a growing business idea of teaching families these same safety skills and techniques when connecting with their pets.

How We Help

With the rise of the pandemic and pet adoption, it’s essential to train our dogs properly and our families, too. Parents need to understand the importance of ensuring their child’s respectful behavior to the dog, and kids need to know how to be “dog safe” and responsible pet owners themselves. 

As a professional dog trainer, Kelly knows that even the most well-trained dog can be pushed into situations where they feel the need to protect themselves, and strives to share this lesson with her clients. Education in pet safety and responsible pet ownership has the potential of leading to a respectful, loving and kind relationship with our pets. 

When she’s not working with valuable clients, furthering her knowledge and education of pets, and learning the best ways to treat our pets (and for them to treat us!) Kelly is busy being a mom of two and a wife. She’s proud of her story and not ever letting her scars be an obstacle. A college graduate, MBA holder from a top school, wife to the man of her dreams, and mother to 2 incredible boys, she truly knows how to live life to the fullest. She believes in the ideology “Happy Pets, Happy Family, Happy Home.”