Fiona’s Success Story —

“Before we started this program I was on the verge of rehoming Fiona, we were looking for rescues that would take aggressive dogs, she was aggressing towards me and my boyfriend about 3-5 times a week and several of these aggressive episodes included actual bites where skin was broken. I was terrified of her and she was terrified of me.

[Now] We have such a good relationship now packed full of trust and constant communication! It feels like it’s been forever since she’s aggressed toward me and I could not be happier or safer since joining RRP.

I'm sooo incredibly happy with our results too, I can't believe how much our lives have changed in just a few months, it honestly feels so weird when I think about what the state of our lives were like a few months ago, both me and Fifi were always on a constant state of fear around each other, and now it feels like we're both so comfortable and happy and share so much love, it's a huge relief!

The lessons that has been most impactful in improving Fiona’s behavior are the ‘consent to pet’ lesson and the inter-household aggression training. The Be A Dog protocol has been extremely helpful for me as a guardian because it taught me to reward Fiona when she was relaxing and offering preferred behaviors, instead of how I used to believe I should train which was tell her to do something and then give her a treat if she does what I request.

Our greatest win is definitely the fact that Fiona asks for snuggles now, and actually quite often too! Being able to give her affection without her or I being fearful has been huge in our relationship building. She even asks for snuggles as a comfort when she is stressed which is crazy to me because they used to be a huge stress in her life.

My greatest mindset shift in RRP is realizing that Fiona and I are a team, we need to work together to figure out what works best for both of us, not just what I think works best for me. This has had a huge impact in our level of trust in one another. I now understand how important it is to take Fiona’s comfortability into affect in all things we do and to make sure I am not forcing her to do something she is not comfortable with. Both Fiona and I are getting better at listening to each other and working together to strengthen our relationship.

The coaching calls are great! I love hearing everyone’s different perspectives on so many different things. They’re very helpful, I always walk away from them with loads of information to apply to our training, and I love the way they make me think.

The RRP community is extremely helpful, mostly for my mental sanity. It makes me feel like I’m not alone in this recovery journey and it’s so great to be able to share wins with people who understand. I’m sooo incredibly proud of how far Fiona has come and I love being able to share that with people who can actually understand why they are huge wins for us.

I would 100% recommend the RRP to others. It has given me the constant support and structure that me and Fifi sooo desperately need to work through our recovery. It’s also had a huge impact on my confidence in being Fiona’s care giver.”

[An update from Team Fiona 2 Months Post-RRP Graduation]

“Well thought it be a good time to update you on Fiona, she has not shown any sort of aggression towards any humans in 3 whole months!!! (And just to remind you when we started this program she was aggressing towards us ATLEAST 1-3 times a week😳) I can't believe how much our relationship has grown, so yea life is a whole lot better now.”