Wiggle Butt Academy Founder Nicole Kohanski Completes NACA ShelterSafe™ Certification

Certification strengthens Wiggle Butt Academy’s shelter partnerships by deepening expertise in humane care, safe handling, and best-practice shelter operations.

TX, UNITED STATES, April 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Wiggle Butt Academy, a dog training and behavior company serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, announces that Nicole Kohanski, Founder of Wiggle Butt Academy and Purrfect Paws Univeristy, has successfully completed the NACA ShelterSafe™: Foundations in Animal Care certification through the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA).

ShelterSafe™ is a self-paced, online certification program built for frontline shelter staff, volunteers, and animal care professionals. The course includes almost 20 hours of instruction, activities, and exercises focused on practical, modern skills that support compassionate care in real shelter environments.

Why ShelterSafe™ Matters to Wiggle Butt Academy—and to Public Shelters

Wiggle Butt Academy frequently works alongside public shelters and municipal partners. Completing ShelterSafe™ strengthens our ability to collaborate effectively by improving our understanding of the day-to-day realities of sheltering—where decisions must balance animal welfare, staff and volunteer safety, public interaction, and operational consistency.

NACA’s ShelterSafe™ program emphasizes humane care grounded in the Five Freedoms and is built on NACA guidelines and best practices for shelters, helping participants create safer, more professional, and more consistent animal care systems.

“Shelter teams do incredibly hard, important work—often with limited resources and under intense emotional strain,” said Nicole Kohanski, Founder of Wiggle Butt Academy. “This certification deepens our understanding of the pets in the shelter system as well as the employees who care for them and the people who adopt them.”

What the ShelterSafe™ Certification Covers

ShelterSafe™ is designed to be immediately applicable in shelter settings, covering both animal-centered and people-centered skills. Course modules include topics such as:

**Animal enrichment and creating low-stress environments
**Canine and feline body language for safer handling and better welfare outcomes
**Customer service & public engagement, including how to build trust with the community
**Compassion fatigue, resilience, emotional intelligence, and bias awareness—critical skills in animal welfare work
**Dog and cat intake procedures, sanitation, disease recognition and prevention, and core shelter operations
**Spay/neuter, microchipping, and adoption procedures, supporting identification and successful placement

NACA also highlights how enrichment and humane handling practices can reduce stress and support better outcomes for animals in care.

What Certification Completion Represents

NACA’s ShelterSafe™ brochure notes that participants earn a certificate of completion by completing required lesson quizzes/homework and achieving an 80% or higher score on the final exam. The certificate can be used by animal welfare professionals to demonstrate knowledge and professional advancement.

For Wiggle Butt Academy, this certification strengthens our mission-driven work with shelters by reinforcing shared standards around humane care, safe handling, and effective operations—so we can better support shelter teams and the dogs and cats depending on them.

About Wiggle Butt Academy

Wiggle Butt Academy is a dog training and behavior company serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. Known for highly qualified and credentialed trainers and behavior consultants, Wiggle Butt Academy provides humane, science-based training rooted in practical real-life solutions. The entire team is Fear Free Certified, and we are committed to improving outcomes for dogs and the people who love them—both in homes and in partnership with community organizations.

For more information, visit wigglebuttacademy.com.

Nicole Kohanski, MBA, CTC, CDBC, CBCC-KA, CSAT
Wiggle Butt Academy LLC & Purrfect Paws Univeristy
+1 469-444-1474
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