Porter.
The proof.

Porter was found as a stray in Detroit and brought into Last Day Dog Rescue. From the beginning, he suffered from severe dog reactivity and aggression. And from the beginning, he was handled with the old playbook.

Choke chains. Shock collars. Prong collars. The full “dominance” arsenal — applied by well-meaning people who believed what they’d been told. After over a year in rescue, none of it was working.

In 2015, Jacqueline took Porter on as a foster. He was 2 or 3 years old.

He arrived showing every sign of a very stressed, very fearful dog.

He had hair loss and skin issues. Although he was cat-friendly at the rescue, he took three months to acclimate to the cats in Jacqueline’s home. Any dog-related noise — on the TV, outside the house, a collar with tags jingling, a distant bark, a whine — would trigger him. He’d bark, lunge, drool, pant, take food too rough.

Three months of decompression, enrichment, routine, and management came first. No training yet. Just let him land.

Then the science. Desensitization. Counter-conditioning. Systematically pairing everything that used to frighten him with something better. Meeting him below threshold every time. Teaching him that the world was safer than he’d learned.

It worked. Over the course of a year, Porter went from a reactive, terrified dog to one who could see another dog walking past the house, or hear one barking in the neighborhood, and barely notice. He thrived on puzzle feeders. He loved training. He became the ambassador rescue pit bulls deserve. His foster-failure status was claimed one year after he came home.

Porter lived a stress-free life and was deeply loved by his kitty siblings. He crossed the rainbow bridge in August 2025.