Understanding Fido, LLC

We brought Amy in to work with our 8 month old German Shepherd mix. The fun fact in our story is she had already met and worked with him through her volunteer work at the Cabarrus Animal Shelter where we adopted him from. He quickly remembered her and she was instantly his favorite person to visit each week. From the minute Amy shows up she is immediately in trainer mode. Every move she makes, every word she uses is very meticulous to ensure she guides the dog correctly from the jump. Our time spent with Amy was about 70% focused on training us and 30% on training our dog. We fully understood that his training will only be as good as what we know to do. Amy has a great way of making “work” fun for the dogs. To this day, our dog loves playing what he thinks are games, but we are actually teaching him queues to respond the way we need him to. She taught us that patience and consistency are key and armed us with tactics that we continue to work on each day. One of the best features to what Amy offers, is the ability for in-home training. For us, this was key to make sure our dog could make the connection of what we needed him to do in the face of our normal distractions (I.e., cats) at home. He continues to be a work in progress but we feel confident in the tools Amy gave us to get him over the finish line!

We enlisted Amy’s help when we accidentally ended up with a third dog. I found Claire, a probably 8 year old bully mix, loose in a parking lot and brought her home thinking I could find her owner and reunite them! Eventually we figured out that Claire’s owner was nowhere to be found, and we felt stuck. Claire was very reactive towards both people and other dogs. We knew that if we surrendered her to the shelter, it was likely she would be euthanized, and we had really fallen in love with her despite her challenges. As for our other two dogs, Winnie (Aussie/bully mix) was not a fan of her new housemate. We also have Peaches (am staff/APBT) who is a perfect angel lol. When we reached out to Amy, we discussed the fact that no matter how things turned out with Claire, we still wanted to do some training with Winnie. She is really lacking confidence and needed some help with general obedience. Amy has been such a huge help to us. She has been open and honest with what we can achieve and we have seen consistent progress with all three dogs (even Peaches). She is knowledgeable, flexible, and professional. I feel like I’ve learned so much about dog behaviors over the past few months from Amy’s book recommendations and training session. It’s been so exciting to see Winnie learning and listening. It’s like I can see the little wheels turning in her head during training 🥹 While we haven’t done as much official training with Claire, Amy has helped guide us through discussions with our vet and that has made a huge impact on Claire’s overall wellbeing. We started her on some pain meds and anxiety meds and she’s a much happier dog now. I know that her progress will continue as she becomes more comfortable. Don’t hesitate to work with Amy, she absolutely knows her stuff. There are a lot of dog trainers out there that make huge, unrealistic promises. Don’t fall for it. They can really make things worse if they don’t know what they’re talking about. Amy is honest and reliable.

Amy at Understanding Fido is absolutely amazing! I started with her Baby Basics Training Package for Puppies under six months old, and I’m now on my third round because it’s been that valuable. She comes to my home, meets at parks, or sets up socialization exercises around town, and every session has been so helpful in taking away the stress and anxiety of raising a puppy. Amy is professional, knowledgeable, and thorough, but also fun and encouraging. She doesn’t just train the dog—she trains you—which has completely changed how I understand and connect with my Border Collie. Thanks to her guidance, my once rambunctious rescue is learning to be calm and well-behaved, and our bond is stronger than ever. If you’re looking for a trainer who is clear, consistent, and always there to support you, Amy is the best. I’m so grateful I found her and highly recommend Understanding Fido!