Penny’s RRP Success Story —

Our 'journey' started back in November of last year when we adopted Miss Penny from the local shelter. Our kids had been bugging us about getting a dog non-stop for at least six months. My wife wasn't putting up much of a fight (she secretly wanted a dog, too). It was three against one. I could only hold out for so long. 

[When we adopted Penny,] we obviously didn't know she had separation anxiety at the time. However, the first few times we left her home alone, it became painfully obvious (watching her on the cameras in the house) that we had a problem on our hands. Watching Penny on video those first couple of times we left her alone was really hard. We could see that she was stressed and anxious, but we initially thought, "Oh, she's new here. It will pass." It didn't. 

I looked up some local trainers and talked to them over the phone. They all wanted crazy amounts of money to come over and work with Miss Penny. I kept looking. Eventually, I found one who was reasonably priced (or so I thought). When they came over, the 'plan' to 'cure' Miss Penny of her SA was to crate train her. I knew this was going to be a problem because it's not what we wanted to do as owners. I kept looking. One of the trainers I spoke to gave me 'nickel's worth of free advice' and told me to read Malena Demartini-Price's book on SA. So I did. I liked her approach, thought processes, etc. I knew I had to find someone who had a similar approach. I now knew what I wanted, and more importantly, what I didn't want, in a trainer.  

Naturally, I then turned to YouTube to see if anyone out there had some good videos about treating dogs with S/A. And that's where I stumbled upon Jenna and the RRP. After a quick search and DM in Insta, I knew we had found the right program for Miss Penny. It was clear very early on that Jenna knows what she's talking about. I, like her, research the heck out of everything. I very much appreciate her approach to SA training: no quick fixes, no easy answers, this is going to be hard, etc. That said, Jenna is always willing to help and answer any questions. I'm happy to have worked with her thus far and look forward to hopefully continuing our training at some point in the future.  

I think the RRP is a very good program, but only if you're willing and able to put in the time it demands. If you don't have the time to do the activities, the missions, the logs, watch the videos, the training calls, etc., then wait until you do. If you do have the time, and you're ready to commit, then yes, you and your pup should definitely do it. 

One of the recommendations of the program is to do your best to keep the dog from going over threshold. Well, that's really hard to do for a working family like ours because the kids go to school and we go to work. When left alone, Miss Penny went over almost instantly. Luckily, we were able to work it out with family, friends, schedule adjustments, etc. to watch her when we were out, but it has not been easy. Even now, we're still making plans around Miss Penny and making sure that she can either come along with us (which she loves) or that someone is available to watch her while we're out. It has NOT been easy. 

The calls were very informative and I liked the ability to bounce ideas off of each other. The immediate feedback was a much better way of doing this than back-and-forth, long-winded emails. 

Even though I did leave Miss Penny alone 'accidentally' for 10 minutes one day, she handled it like a champ. I was very proud of her. Compared to where she was on day one, when I couldn't even walk out the door without her losing her mind, I'd say we've made some progress. We've learned to pick up on some of Penny's 'signs' and she has learned to pick up on some of ours as well.