John Camponeschi/Craig Daily Press
For Shelly Pinnt, the connection to animals came long before she ever trained a dog.
Growing up on a local ranch, she spent her childhood around horses and dogs, where she found peace and purpose in their presence. That connection has since grown into a lifelong mission of healing, trust and service for herself, her animals and the community of Craig.
Pinnt is the owner of Rocky Mountain Happy Paws in Craig. Since she opened it, the business has become more than a pet supply store — it’s evolved into a training center, a boarding facility and for many in Moffat County and northwest Colorado, a source of compassion and pet-based personal growth.
“I came back in 2020 and I wanted to focus on something that was going to be able to keep me at home with my mom and dad while being able to make a living,” Pinnt said. “I was training dogs for about the last five or six years and when I came back I decided I wanted to do it for myself.”
That decision started with a single service dog.
“That one dog is what started my kennel at my mom and dad’s,” she said. “I started training dogs from here to Steamboat and it just kept growing to the point where every day I was doing lessons.”
Eventually, Pinnt’s clients began asking her to board their dogs as well. As a result, the services offered by Happy Paws expanded. But even as the business grew, her method of approaching the training relationship, which is based on a deeply intuitive case-by-case approach, stayed the same.
“I train in a different way. I feel like I relate to animals probably better than I do people,” she said. “I’m not a textbook trainer. A lot of people want to read and then train their dog how a book says to train. I don’t believe you can do that because every dog and every person is different.”
Pinnt said the core of her training technique is not about rigid rules or one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, it’s about understanding the relationship between a dog and its human, and adapting the method to fit both personalities.
“I used to be a one-on-one trainer, and my friend begged me to do groups,” she said. “At first, I was hesitant, but now I love them. I prefer group training because of the range of people and dogs together.”
She pays close attention to how each owner interacts with their pet and works to help people gain confidence as leaders.
“If you’re a very submissive person or quiet, it’s about finding a way to bring out your voice,” she said. “It’s not just about teaching the dog, it’s about helping the person feel capable, too.”
Pinnt recalled one of her own training sessions with her son, noting how the same dog responded differently to him than to her.
“Gunner’s a Belgian Malinois. I’m a strong trainer, but my son takes him and he’s a completely different dog,” she said. “So I told my son that boundaries are a big thing. It’s how you speak to the dog, when to cuddle them and when not to. You have to match the training to the person.”
In order to foster those boundaries and customize training, Pinnt often coaches her clients through scenarios rather than simply taking the leash and working with the dog herself.
“It’s natural to want to grab the leash and say, ‘let me show you,’ but I try to walk them through it instead,” she said. “Every person is different and you have to help them find their way.”
For Pinnt, training isn’t just about obedience — it’s about transforming relationships. For her, one of the ultimate goals is to find a training approach that works for the dog, the human and the home.
“To see the difference of the outcome is really important to me,” she said.
That difference, she says, often extends far beyond an animal’s behavior. In a time when mental health challenges continue to affect communities across northwest Colorado, particularly in Routt and Moffat counties, Pinnt sees dogs as emotional anchors and a saving grace.
“A lot of people just want their dog to be their stability,” she said. “It’s showing them how to teach their dog how to help them relax by teaching their dog to relax too. I’ll often ask my clients how I can help them relate to their dog so they both calm down.”
The power of that connection becomes even more evident in her service dog work. Pinnt recounted training a golden retriever for a young girl with autism and ADHD.
“Seeing her be able to just sit by a dog and help her calm down, that’s amazing to me,” she said. “Even being able to place one of my companion dogs that I’ve literally been in love with since the day they were born into a family, that’s really peaceful to me.”
Her own dog, Snuggles, remains a grounding force in her life as well.
“I bought her to sell her for a service animal,” she said. “But I stuck her on my dad’s lap — he’s a two-time cancer survivor—and when I came back from doing chores, he said, ‘Her name is Snuggles.’ It’s the first dog I ever named for him, and she has lived true to that.”
Snuggles has since produced more than eight puppies that have become service animals, all of which are, in Pinnt’s words, “simply amazing.”
But the path to connecting humans with their canine companions hasn’t always been easy.
Between operating a pet supply business, training full time and serving as a 4-H leader, Pinnt says she’s quite often moving at a rapid pace. Despite that fact, she remains grateful for the community that continues to support her.
“Craig’s great,” she said. “Opening my business I had a lot of family and friends that helped me by giving me dogs of their own to start. Word of mouth is everything.”
That support fueled her work with 4-H as well, where she helped form what she calls the “biggest little club on the Western Slope for dogs.” After telling the fair board that she wanted to start agility training for dogs, she was able to raise over $10,000 with the support of the Moffat County community.
“Every time I’ve asked Craig to support anything I’ve done, they show up,” she tearfully said.
Beyond youth programs, Pinnt donates training and resources to a wide range of community programs and organizations including local schools, law enforcement, the Boys and Girls Club and the annual county fair.
Pinnt hopes to expand to a new training and boarding center that still maintains the personal touch of her current ranch facility, where the dogs are “literally right there” with her.
And through it all, whether she is training a cadaver dog, coaching a child through their first show or simply helping someone find peace in their companion, Pinnt continues to find her own sense of purpose.
“They give me peace, joy and a lot of relaxation,” she said. “If I don’t have a dog somewhere in my life every single minute of the day, I feel like I’m lacking something.”
Pinnt holds a basic dog training class in Craig’s City Park on Wednesday evenings between the VFW and the wave pool. The class focuses on socialization, impulse control and obedience. The course, which costs $25 per session, is open to the public.
For more information on Shelly Pinnt and Rocky Mountain Happy Paws, visit RockyMountainHappyPaws.com.
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