Animal Behavior Wellness Center

Since working with the ABWC team, we have seen a huge improvement in our anxious dog. The medical team has helped us to find a medication regimen that treats Olive’s anxiety and keeps her comfortable without dulling her personality. The trainers are absolutely incredible and have helped us achieve results that we never would have thought possible. Olive is now able to walk near other dogs without reacting to them and calmly allow strangers to enter our home. We are so proud of how far she has come!

The ABWC is the reason I have my happy cat, Casper, today! Without their support and expertise with respect to medicating him, I think I would have given up, in fact, I did consider that along the way. When I first experienced him in attack mode, the ABWC was able to evaluate him quickly, and help both cat and human coexist. It took a few years to hear him purr, but I have been rewarded with purrs, maybe not often, but often enough, to feel satisfied that I have been able to help him overcome whatever mistreatment he may have suffered at a young age.

I have worked with Dr Amy Pike for 3+ years to help my anxious/fearful dog; she is amazing and has helped my dog so much. When we started seeing Dr Pike, my dog Rosie was so scared of storms, lightning and thunder that she shut down, she was withdrawn, panted and drooled much of the day and struggled to sleep at night. Dr Pike patiently worked with us as we tried combinations of activities, training and medications to find the right plan for Rosie. Dr Pike listened to my concerns and feedback as we tried medications to find the right fit for Rosie. Rosie is now a happy. relaxed dog again. Dr Pike was also extremely helpful to me as it can be very stressful for owners and her compassion for me and everything I was going through during this journey was hugely helpful. I am seeing another vet in the same practice for my other dog who is scared of strangers and have been happy with the progress we are seeing. If you have any behavioural challenges with your pet, I highly recommend seeing Dr Pike

amazing services

We brought our Shih Tzu puppy Beignet to ABWC for puppy preschool and kindergarten and we couldn’t be happier! The training went so far beyond simply potty training or socializing our puppy. We learned about dog body language, different strategies for training that might work better for her and a variety of tools, tips, and tricks that made having a puppy easier than I ever thought it could be. Christine, Xenia, and Sidney were so kind and helpful and thoughtfully explained everything in every class. I would recommend them to anyone!

The team at Animal Behavior Wellness Center is amazing. They helped us navigate an extremely difficult time with our pet. They are warm, welcoming, & empathetic. I would highly recommend them for anyone struggling day to day with challenging pet behaviors.

Classes were well managed and each dog had attention and guidance. Humans were well managed too 😄 and individual guidance was offered to help manage the new lessons. Well done!

I've been working with ABWC for my dog over the last 3 years to address her anxiety and reactivity. I can't recommend them enough, I couldn't imagine navigating those difficulties without their guidance, education, and support in finding the best medications and management tools for her. Owning a dog with these issues can be really hard, ABWC's kindness, expertise, and insight made all the difference in getting us through the toughest parts. Progress with these pups takes time, but 3 years later my girl is doing better than ever and can handle things that once felt impossible!

My experience was a bit different than some others. I made my initial appointment with Dr. Pike for my reactive dog while I was overseas serving. Unfortunately my tour was extended a bit, and I had to reschedule. I wanted to schedule with Dr. Pike, but she was booked out pretty far. I was talked into scheduling with her resident Dr. Engler. My intent (that I shared with the scheduler) was to schedule with Dr. Pike when she became available. The scheduler assured me that that would be fine (which ended up not being exactly true). Here is how it all went for me: The first thing done is paperwork, which you do online. You then need to have a phone appointment where a person reads the paperwork back to you, which is ~$250. Then you do an “initial assessment” where the Dr. also basically reads the paperwork to you, and watches your pet interact with you and the treatment team during an hour long appointment. This is $550-675 depending on who you schedule with (Dr. Pike is more expensive) plus cost of meds if you are going that way. I had the phone call appointment, and the initial assessment. I was told basically “put your dog on meds (which you primary vet can prescribe btw) and keep doing what you’re doing”. Great. Very validating, but not worth $900 in my opinion. I then tried to schedule with Dr. Pike to see if there was more I could do with my pup. I was THEN told that I would have to redo the initial assessment at $675 (they did offer to drop it to $550 as I had just had an initial assessment). But Dr. Pike was booked out for 3 months, so I should just stick with Dr. Engler. I was not happy with this, but I really want my pup to be happy and healthy, so I agreed. The day came. I took off of work, I bundled my pup into the car, and headed out. Traffic had some other plans for me, so I called and let them know I was going to be late. They informed me that I could be 15 minutes late, otherwise I would need to reschedule. I ended up being 17 minutes late. I offered to take a shorter appointment, explained that this was outside of my control, but no. I was told that the 15 minutes is standard, so 17 minutes was just not ok. Given my frustration with how things had already gone, and the fact that I had gotten no tools to help my pup, I opted to not return as the return on investment for me and my girl was nil. Hopefully your experience is better if you choose to go this route.

Dr. Amy Pike is an amazing behavioral veterinarian. When we got our 1.5 year old little girl, a Chihuahua-Dachshund-Terrier mix, 4.5 years ago, we soon realized that she had suffered trauma and was frightened of everything and everyone. Two different vets (different offices), and a dog trainer with more than 20 years experience raved about Dr. Pike. If anything, they were too modest. Dr. Pike is not only brilliant, but also kind and caring. She always seems delighted to see us, as if our little girl just made her day! Dr. Pike also has a top-shelf crew, from the administrative staff (always on top of everything and happy to help) to other animal behaviorists (special shout out to Diane and Michelle, who are both very knowledgeable and lovely). The goodness starts at the top and runs through everyone you meet at ABWC. Dr. Pike and the gang helped us help our little girl, and today she is no longer fearful--she is the boss of the family! She went from hiding to hugging, from trembling to strutting around the neighborhood, from being a lone warrior to being our little princess. We could not have done this without Dr. Pike and her team's wise and compassionate care.