Angus’ Success Story —

• Angus rarely went outside during the day

• Reacted to people, dogs, anything new in the environment

• Reacted to people coming to the house

• Reacted to noise in the backyard

• Wouldn’t get in the car

• He lunges and barks when on leash in the face of triggers and is large and strong so that’s stressful for everyone. He wouldn’t really go or walks -  not at all in the day and often not far at night. He got anxious when something different happened, and got anxious and retreated if we tried to train basic things.  He was not very food motivated (treats or meals).

The idea of being able to go for a walk, or take Angus somewhere in the car, or leave Angus with someone and go away for a couple of days ourselves, was totally out of reach.  

We had several home visits from a couple of trainers during the first year or so we had Angus, but these were unsatisfactory and we stopped them.  We haven’t been part of a structured program until we enrolled in RRP.

]Now] Angus will now go outside during the day. He gets in the car easily and has just started going for short drives.  He still reacts to people and dogs but can manage to disengage from them if they are about 40 metres away, not walking towards him (at the beginning of the RRP anything in view at all was a trigger).  He calms down/bounces back quickly after a trigger. He’s learnt to sit, lie down, jump up on things on cue, chin rest, come etc.

While we are still scanning for triggers when out we can quickly assess whether they are going to be a problem for Angus and have tools to manage/cope.  So there are still surprises when someone comes around the corner unexpectedly and all hell breaks loose but it is much less stressful to be out with him.

We feel confident that overall Angus has a good, enriched life and that we know how to keep him on an improvement track.

Angus will ask for what he wants, he enjoys learning and puzzling things out, rather than retreating anxiously.  He looks for more attention and play. He is much more enthusiastic about food.  He is braver – shakes off stressful events.

He looks forward to visits from a select few people and their dog.  He is just starting to go for short drives in the car and to be interested in the stimulus encountered on a drive (smells/sights).

We have a long way still to go but we feel we have the basics now to continue to work through Angus’s triggers.  The continued access to the curriculum and advice will be invaluable.

Angus has become much more confident with us. As mentioned above, he looks for more attention and play.  He is still happy to take himself off to the garden or the back room to be on his own but he is more likely to also want to sit around, play or wander in the yard with us.  We have a much better sense of what he might want or how he is feeling.

You need to be persistent in your training and enrichment regimes but you also need to be prepared to recalibrate if things might not be going as expected.  Also, that change in Rover may be slow, so don’t be discouraged if he’s not progressing in leaps and bounds but rather the changes can be tiny and incremental.

How has your experience been working with Jenna?

Very good. We appreciated her openness, helpfulness and expertise, but also her challenging questions.

What part(s) of the RRP did you find was the most helpful in your ability to learn and implement the techniques with Rover?

 The Dog Breed Self lessons and the lessons on creating a more independent and confident dog.  Eleve-Eight was super helpful in making counter conditioning ‘doable’ in the real world, regardless of what your environment is like.

What would you say to someone who wants to join the RRP but is on the fence at the moment?

Have another look at the free material available, like on Youtube; then consider that the course material will be backed up by one-on-one advice and that you get access to a community of people in a similar place to you; definitely give it a go.