For Olivia Farrelly and her boyfriend, David, bringing home their dog was the easy part.
The pair, together for five years, had first come up with some name options. “Last year, my boyfriend and I had talked a lot about getting a dog when we moved in together,” Olivia explained.
Then they kept their eye on Petfinder, first seeing their dog about a year ago, named Sophia at the time. “She was being fostered,” Olivia said. “Something about her picture resonated with us. We said, ‘Why don’t we wait a week and if she’s still available, we’ll contact the rescue.’”
A week later, they filled out an application. “Everything happened very quickly,” Olivia shared. “She had just been spayed, so we were just waiting until she finished healing. She was five months old at the time. After our application was accepted, we drove to her foster’s house in New Jersey and picked her up that night. It surprisingly ended up being an easy process. But looking back, we probably should have done a little more research than we did.”
They’d researched as much as they could. “We did a lot of research in terms of the typical puppy things, like what food and toys we would need to buy and how to crate train,” Olivia shared. “I think we were very prepared on that front, so when we had the foster interview everything went smoothly. More and more I hear about rescues requiring fenced-in back yards or home inspections, but neither of those ended up being necessary in our case. From the first moment we saw the Petfinder ad to when we picked her up was only around two weeks.”
They decided on a new name as well. “When we saw her,” Olivia shared, “she had this speckled fur on her paws, so when we sent her pictures around to our friends, one of them said, ‘Oh she’s peppered. She’s Pepper.’ And it just stuck.”
They’d both grown up around dogs. “We both had only interacted with dogs that were friendly with people and other animals,” Olivia said. “They all had easygoing temperaments. Pepper seemed to be the same at first. She showed no behavioral issues for the first two weeks.”
Then other behaviors started to emerge. “Once she got more comfortable with us, she started to show reactivity towards both dogs and people while on walks. She also displayed other behaviors, like fearfulness towards strangers, that we had never encountered our entire lives,” Olivia explained.
The couple found Philly Unleashed, struck by the reviews, testimonies, and experience with dogs just like Pepper. “Philly Unleashed specifically spoke about behaviors that Pepper was exhibiting and had classes and one-on-one training sessions to address these issues,” Olivia said. “I was like, ‘Oh, perfect.’”
They started with Puppy Kindergarten until Pepper was about six months old, then purchased a package for Level 1. When her reactive behaviors began, they switched to Dogs with Attitude in February of 2019. “I think it’s really deepened the bond that we share with her,” Olivia shared. “But having a reactive dog can be, at times, really isolating and frustrating.”
But Olivia and David have also learned much more about dogs and dog behavior. “There’s this whole other world we wouldn’t have stepped into if we had adopted a ‘normal’ dog,” Olivia shared. “We’ve done a lot of research online and have taken classes through Philly Unleashed, and we’ve been implementing the things we’ve learned at home. We now have a better grasp on her reactivity and she’s been improving every day. And she’s helped us grow in ways we wouldn’t have had otherwise if we didn’t have her.”
They completed Dogs with Attitude 1 & 2, learning how to interact with Pepper in various settings. “We’ve learned to be patient,” Olivia explained. “In the beginning, we were confused by Pepper’s whining and barking. We didn’t realize that she reacts because she’s scared, overwhelmed, or feeling emotions that she’s not able to keep in check. It’s been important for us to understand her thresholds and how she handles certain situations. We’ve learned to take a step back and be like, she’s not barking and lunging at someone because she wants to do that, she’s doing that because she’s terrified and we have to work at her pace, not ours.”
They thought she’d get bigger after finding through a DNA test that she was part Miniature Schnauzer, Mountain Curr, American Pit Bull Terrier, Labrador, German Shepherd, and Staffordshire terrier, but she leveled out at 35 pounds. And she’s a sweetheart, bringing a whole lot of good along with the challenging parts. “For one, she’s super friendly once she warms up to you,” Olivia said. “She’s really cuddly – she pokes you with her paw if you stop petting her. She’s also super smart. Once we found out that she enjoys learning new things, we started teaching her a bunch of tricks. Seeing her thought process while we shape behaviors has been really fun for all of us.”
When Olivia wasn’t feeling well after work, David brought Pepper to greet her at the subway station, and Pepper’s wiggling greeting brought some joy to a tough day. “She’s brought a lot of happiness and warmth to our lives,” Olivia said. “She’s always doing things that make us laugh.”
Olivia’s advice to others with a reactive dog is to create a strong support network, even through podcasts, books, websites, and social media accounts, along with local training assistance. “Philly Unleashed was instrumental in helping David and me through the challenging behaviors Pepper exhibited,” Olivia said. “The handling techniques that we learned are useful, but what was also valuable was knowing that you’re not alone. You’re not the only one struggling.”
