Understanding Fido, LLC

Amy's expertise in and dedication to her craft was made quite obvious by the way she interacted with my super reactive rescue pet. Champ is still very much a work in progress, but over the past 3 months he has shown significant improvement in several key areas. I am as much a student as Champ is in this endeavor and Amy's patient guidance has been invaluable. Her methods using positive reinforcement (no choke collars) are sound and with diligent application you will see results. Problem pup...give Understanding Fido a chance to help. I'm glad I did.

I adopted Molly back in November 2023. When I brought my other dog, Bella, to meet her at the shelter, things were okay. Bella was concerned, but I figured it was due to the location, and Molly was excited, I figured it was because she was getting out of the kennel. After bringing Molly home, within 1 hour I was regretting everything! Molly was absolutely intense, her high energy didn't bother me, it was her other behavior; she didn't listen, of course didn't know her name, was super mouthy, destructive and her behavior towards Bella was not acceptable. She would roughly grab Bella's neck and try to climb her face to push her down, nip at Bella's feet. Growling and getting more intense. Bella would come running to one of us humans to keep Molly away. They needed to be kept separate. I've never crated a dog and here I was buying a crate to put her in. it was sad and stressful, so many sleepless nights! Nothing I used to I train my precious 6 dogs and Bella worked on Molly. I was at a loss. She was scary when she'd get riled up: jumping on me, mouthing me. She ripped so many clothes and left my arms and legs with so many bruises. I was glad it was winter and could hide behind long sleeves. I reached out to so many trainers, pleading for help with Molly. After reaching out to the CCAS staff, they suggested Amy at Understanding Fido, Amy had said she would help, virtually, since I was out of her service area. Originally I bypassed that because how was she going to help me “virtually”? Well, it was decided to go forward with Amy, despite my hesitation. We “met” once a week for an hour, where I would update her on how Molly was behaving. (I would time my interactions with Molly because I couldn't be with her for more than 2-3 minutes at first before she'd switch to intense.) Slowly, following what Amy suggested as homework based on what I had updated her on, I was able to stay longer with Molly. The mouthing slowly diminished (she'll occasionally still put her mouth around your hand but a simple no or uh uh and she'll stop). It was amazing to see progress!! Amy helped me understand where Molly was coming from, just from me giving her detailed updates about the week. Amy helped me learn a different way of training dogs that I didn't know about; imposed nap times? What? Boy have those helped!! Amy helped me “tame the wild child.” Yes, we still have work to do, but she's able to be in the same space as Bella. She's able to walk on leash decently. She no longer needs to be crated. She knows her name, sit, leave it, let's go, touch, handshake, and maybe a couple more I'm forgetting. We ended up meeting Amy, in-person, after 2-3 months of weekly virtual sessions. The first in-person session, we kept our distance from each other and practiced being out and around other surroundings. The second in-person session was shocking! Molly let Amy walk her, she let Amy pet her. It was amazing! The smile on my face! The progress! We've still got a long way to go but as Amy said (paraphrasing) “paper thin slices” will get us there as opposed to thicker slices. In other words it is breaking everything down to even smaller information and building up on it. It's definitely a different way of training and Amy's been fabulous helping us understand (Molly and I) understand each other!! I would definitely give her a shot, even if you're out of her range. She also works with your schedule. 10/10 would highly recommend.

I found Amy just through Google searching and I am so glad I did! She has been working with our 15 month old dog who is very active and excitable. With a baby on the way, we reached out to Amy for help on techniques to help him understand and adapt to a new baby. He responds to her training so well and we have great ideas moving forward we can implement for Teddy and baby. She is professional, respectful, and for every session was prompt and on time. I would highly recommend if you are looking for a good dog trainer in the Charlotte area!