[celstu1]

Nodak,
I get the impression that you are pretty young. Also that you are jealous of your puppy & fiances bond because it does not involve you personally. If you & her had a child (a skin,human child) and that child wanted its mother over its father all the time (like young children typically do) would you feel that same jealousy? Ive known a lot of guys who had children young and were in a fairly short term relationship before getting married and they were jealous of their own child. They felt the child took away from mommy & daddy time too much.

I don't want to say anything negative bc I dont know you or your fiance, but I think YOU need to create a bond with the puppy. Puppies LOVE attention and affection. If you YELL at him or are rough with him then OF COURSE he will fear you! You created that fear, its not that he just naturally dislikes you! Maybe you should take him to a training class where you BOTH could be trained. (many people need this). Since this is your first puppy, you probaby need help on training him and how to approach it, and training help for the pup won't hurt the pup either! That might help you bond with him too. If you took him, just you, to a couple of classes. Then you'll have one on one time with him and he'll see you as a shelter for him, protector and friend when Heidi is not around. He'll be more likely to come to you more often even when she is around after that too.

Also, its ok to not think of your dog as one of your children, nothing wrong with that... but a dog is still a BIG responsibility, LIKE a child. You need to provide for something living. So whether you think of the dog as human like or non-human like... use his name and gender. You sound like YOU dont like dogs when you keep saying 'IT'. I think thats why people are saying you are not an animal person.

Good Luck!