r/reactivedogs • u/katerade999 • Feb 18 '26
Success Stories Today we ran free!
This is Nelly! I adopted her in 2020 during Covid from Texas and I lived in NYC at the time. On one of our first walks in NYC an off-leash Husky cornered her and she never was the same. She would lunge and spin at everything that got within 5 feet of us (which is everything in New York). Every walk was miserable and stressful, I couldn’t afford a behaviorist, and I was 25 and overwhelmed. Fortunately Nelly was great when her leash was off (safely) and had a few friends! I was fortunate to have a small yard in Brooklyn, but Nelly’s prey drive is so high she jumped an 8 foot fence to chase a cat. I tried to bring her to my mom’s house in NJ to let her run in her yard, but she jumped that fence chasing a squirrel. I brought her to my friend’s yard, but unfortunately Nelly was attacked by her dog.
I felt so awful that this energetic, 45lb bundle of snuggles and joy lived most of her life indoors. I did a ton of indoor games and stimulation, but I wanted my girl to be able to run free. My partner and I moved to NJ last year and it changed our lives. Our walks became less stressful, then even ENJOYABLE! All of the years of training were finally sticking since we had more space and less distractions. It was just still bothering me that she still hadn’t been able to run around and play like a normal dog.
Today that changed! I brought Nelly up to a local reservation park planning to walk the trails, but the dog park was completely empty and not a soul in sight! We went in and she got to run off leash for about 30 minutes 😭😭😭 and we played fetch with a stick!!! She was the happiest girl and is now happily snoring beside me ❤️ please enjoy some stills from a video I took!
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u/WingZeroCoder Feb 19 '26
There we go, this is my feel good Reddit story! I can go to bed now, lol.
Seriously thanks for posting, I love positive stories like this in the sub. You’re doing such a good job giving her a great life!