Rachel Oliver thought she knew what she was getting into when her family adopted Cricket, a shelter rescue. Shortly after, he was chasing and herding her 7-year-old son through the house and backyard, nipping at his heels. Her son, who has sensory processing challenges and anxiety, would scream and run, which only made Cricket more determined. The family tried positive reinforcement. Nothing changed.
"The only alternative was to return Cricket to the shelter," Oliver said. "We did not want to do that."
What the Olivers needed, it turned out, wasn't a better-behaved dog. They needed someone to help them understand their own role in the chaos. They found that someone in Donovan Miller.
Miller is the owner of Fidelio Dog Works, an Austin-based training company he purchased in 2018. In the years since, he has grown Fidelio from a solo practice into a six-person team built around a philosophy that challenges most people's assumptions about why dogs misbehave.
"We train dogs, and we coach humans," Miller said. "Humans are harder."
That conviction shapes everything from the first call. Rather than scheduling a start date, Fidelio begins with a home visit, observing where the dog sleeps, how the household runs, and what happens when guests walk through the door. The intake, Miller says, looks more like a session with a psychologist than a sales call.
"I think it's really hard for us as humans to accept that the problems we're seeing in front of us are caused by us," he said. "Whether it's over-coddling, too much freedom, or reinforcing the wrong things, the dog is just responding to what we're teaching it."
The Talkington family had that same realization after bringing home Bailey, a mini Bernedoodle puppy, to a household with three kids. They had done their research, waited for the right moment, and still found themselves overwhelmed within weeks.
"Bailey came home sweet, loving, energetic, and without manners," Brad Talkington said. "We didn't want a robotic dog. We wanted a good canine citizen."
The Talkingtons had already contacted other trainers. Every other program wanted a deposit and a training date. Miller wanted to understand the family first, asking about their daily routines, their kids, and the layout of their home.
"He was taking notes on how he could help train Bailey to become part of our family, not just a trained dog," Talkington said. "It was a game-changing moment for us."
That mindset shift, Miller says, is the whole point. Fidelio's board-and-train program runs roughly four weeks, with dogs living and training in a home-like environment and going on regular field trips to parks and neighborhood spots to build real-world skills. Families come in at the two-week mark to start learning how to carry it all home.
"The impact on the humans makes the biggest difference in whether the dog will succeed in the future," Miller said. "Dogs end up great. But if the humans don't follow through, it doesn't end as well."
For the Olivers, the follow-through paid off. Cricket still has his personality. What's gone is the disorder that once had the family questioning whether they'd made a mistake.
"We needed the training more than our dog needed it," Oliver said. "We're no longer questioning our decision to get another dog. We feel like we have many enjoyable years ahead with Cricket as part of our family."
For Miller, that kind of outcome is the measure of everything Fidelio does. Not a perfectly obedient dog, but a family that has genuinely learned to live well with one.
"The dogs, the family, the kids, the grandparents that come over," he said. "All of that can be improved through this process. That's what I love about it."
To book a consultation, visit www.fideliodogs.com
"We needed the training more than our dog needed it.” – Rachel Oliver