Our Small but Mighty Team

Allie Menendez, Owner

Allie has been caring for animals for as long as she can remember as a child and knew the veterinary field was where she belonged. Allie began her career with animals at age 16 at a veterinary clinic in Canal Winchester, Ohio as a kennel assistant. She worked at the same clinic all through high school and college as she earned her Associates’s of Applied Science in Veterinary Technology from Columbus State Community College as well as passed her national exam to become a Certified Veterinary Technician. Allie continued her career as a CVT after moving to Florida working primarily in emergency/critical care as well as shelter medicine until pursuing managing FDF full-time. Allie has volunteered with numerous rescue organizations including a deployment with the APSCA to care for dogs in high-profile confidential court cases and has also assisted local law enforcement with animal-related cases as a subject matter expert.

Allie has brought home over 250 foster dogs to find homes for and continues to have a strong passion for fostering primarily medical and behavior case dogs. When she’s able to sneak away from the farm you’ll find Allie competing in multiple dog sports with her 2 competition dogs Riot and Zeus, as well as training her new sports prospect, River, Allie, and her dogs have competed at local and international levels primarily in frisbee and dock diving and have placed highly at international competitions in frisbee and have been featured on ESPN2. Allie co-owns a disc dog league that uses Foster Dog Farms as a home field for competitions. Allie is a mom to three “junior dog trainers”; Owen and twins Cole and Sloane that keep her quite busy as well.

Joe Menendez, Owner & Training Director

Joe first got his start with animals showing his family dogs in 4-H in rural Ohio from ages 8-18. After high school graduation, he attended The Ohio State University receiving a bachelor's degree. After college, Joe decided to pursue his passion for training dogs and began working with Pilot Dogs Inc in Columbus, OH, a guide dog school for the blind. For two years he professionally trained guide dogs and their owners, helping the visually impaired learn to navigate life with a service dog. In 2011 Joe and his wife Allie moved to Florida for Joe to further his guide dog training career at Southeastern Guide Dogs in Palmetto, FL. There he spent five years training dogs, placing them with the visually impaired, and working with graduate services as a representative traveling the country to help graduates with their guide dogs. Before departing Southeastern Guide Dogs, he led a team of three trainers and mentored training apprentices learning the art of guide dog training. Joe received the high credential of being a Certified Guide Dog Trainer and Instructor through the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF) during his time at Southeastern. In 2015 after seeing the need for trainers truly willing and able to help members of the community Joe made the transition to training pet dogs and helping their owners to learn obedience and navigate behavior issues.

Alongside Allie, Joe has helped with the fostering of over 250 dogs from local area shelters and rescues. Joe has helped coach many shelter staff and volunteers on the handling of shelter dogs to help improve their adoptability and quality of life. Joe has over 15 years of experience training guide dogs for the blind, basic and advanced obedience, behavior modification as well as competitive sports.