Understanding Fido, LLC

I have nothing but positive words to say about Amy. She truly cares about your dogs and takes the time to meet them where they are at and truly understand your dog. I have loved working with her. She has helped me become a more confident dog owner.

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!

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 just don’t really know where we would be without Amy! We rescued a Pit Bull mix about 6 months ago. Flynn is a wonderful, sweet boy. But, he has an enormous amount of energy. So much that he ends up in trouble. Thank God we found Amy. She taught us how to keep Flynn busy, how to keep his brain busy and keep him out of trouble by giving him exactly what he needs. As far as training him to do what we need him to do, with confidence and consistency we will succeed together. Flynn and I have bonded through this and that was something that Flynn really needed. I can’t say enough about how wonderful Amy is. She’s passionate about educating you on your dog. She wants you and your dog to have a successful relationship. Her gentle focus is was drew me to her and I’ll always be thankful. Here’s Flynn with his lick mat so that I can clean the refrigerator 😁