03/07/2026
Iroh (formerly Randy) was one of the longest residents at AHS Newark. Labeled “not dog friendly.”
When he first came in, he’d lock onto dogs from far out. He’d fixate, body would go stiff. Sometimes he’d lunge. Sometimes he’d even try to chase. The big guy had a lot of emotions but no control.
So we started over.
First we built a way to communicate with him. Marker conditioning. Obedience that actually means something. We layered in the prong and e-collar to add clarity - reinforcement for good decisions, consequences for bad ones.
From there we worked neutrality around dogs. Teaching him to disengage instead of escalate. Rep after rep after rep.
Once calm dogs became easy, we raised the difficulty. The ones that stare, bark, or lunge.
Because that’s real life where we live. Tight apartment hallways. Dogs passing two feet away. Elevators where nobody has space. You don’t get to control every dog you run into.
So he had to learn to keep it together.
The goal isn’t for him to win every interaction. It’s for him to stay accountable and mind his business.
He’ll still feel some type of way about some dogs. That part doesn’t magically disappear. But now he can regulate himself under pressure and make better decisions.
And turns out he wasn’t “unfriendly.” He just had a lot of energy, frustration, and nowhere productive to put it.
We’re proud of how far Iroh has come and excited to see what the next chapter looks like with his new family ❤️
