[Belle Noir]

Sabre was born May 1st, and we brought him home August 10th or 11th, as I recall. He has ALWAYS been aloof and standoffish. He is NOT a people dog, and he's always been like that.
He likes people well enough, but not THAT much. He'll say hi, and he'll play, but rare are the times when he wants to sit with you the way a lap dog should. Sure, he'll lay at your feet and put his head on your foot once in a while, but if the fake fireplace is on, he prefers laying in front of that.
Once in a long while, he'll decide he wants to sleep in the bed. He prefers to sleep on the floor. That's just the way he is. I think the only reason he actually sleeps in the bed as much as he does is because of Fatty the Maltese rescue fun police that I fostered for a while. He would sleep in the bed with HER, because that was the only time she let him lay with her and he had a crush on her, and she wouldn't let him lay with her when she was laying in the dog bed.
I think when she went to her new home, he started sleeping in the bed more because he missed her. But now he sleeps in bed as rarely as he used to.
He's also never been much on treats, though he loves his bully sticks. It's taken me EIGHT MONTHS to find a treat that he doesn't just accept, back away, and spit out. The first treat was the AKC brand duck jerky which he STOLE and then shredded the bag open for. He NEVER did this with treats before. The Bil-Jac liver treats are right next to the bed, on the floor where they have been from the beginning, and he doesn't bother with them. and when I went looking for more, I couldn't find any, but I was fostering a litter of siamese kittens, and socializing them and picked up two different cat treats for THEM and HE likes them. In fact, I had them next to the Bil-Jac Liver treats (which the CATS happen to love, but won't touch the two different kinds of chicken treats I got for them), and my mother caught him running down the hall with the treat bag in his mouth and she rescued them before he tore that bag open.
He's not afraid of people. He's not particularly dog orientated. He's not shy, in fact, he has more than a little bit of that "yorkie swagger". He likes people. He just likes them on HIS terms.
I think he was a big dog in a former life. Like a Lab, or a German Shepherd. That's what he acts like. People say little dogin a big dog body when talking about insecure napoleans snapping yipping and barking at everything. When you look how real big dogs carry themselves, they're always calm, cool, and collected, you rarely see one of THEM screaming at another dog on the end of a leash... and THAT is Sabre.
Yes, he forgets himself and jumps on the sofa once in a while when he is excited. When you come home and he's REALLY happy to see you, he spins like a top, but he calms down, and then he's chilling in whatever spot he's decided to chill in.
He's a REAL big dog in a little dog body.
Pixie and Midget are totally different. Pixie was born May 8th and I brought her home July 3rd. Midget was born Oct 19th, and I brought her home Dec 17th (she's a Papillon), and BOTH of them are in your pocket under your skin I LOVE PEOPLE kind of dogs.
They are the same dog in different breed bodies. Both want to be with people as much as they can. If you go to the bathroom and forget to close the door, they will fight to jump on your lap. Sabre is a gentleman, he lays at the door, doesn't come in just lays there and watches you until you tell him to go away.
Pixie and Midget will NOT go away. They are always under foot, they are always in the way, they are always in everything and they always want to be involved with anything you're doing.
The rare occasion they wander away to play "herd the cats", if they hear you doing something they THINK they might want to be involved in, they break their necks running to see what you're doing, ESPECIALLY if they hear keys rattling, because you are NOT allowed to go on a drive without them.
So I don't know. I can't go with the whole they went to their new homes too early, because it just doesn't apply to my dogs. That way of thinking says that Pixie and Midget should act like Sabre and Sabre should act like Pixie and Midget, and that's just not the case.
Some dogs, EVEN WITHIN a breed are just different. Even when it comes to personality. They are NOT cookie cutters, and just as no one expects every dog within a breed to fit the PHYSICAL standards, no one should expect EVERY dog fit the psychological/temperament/behavioral standards, and those that don't just don't for whatever reason, and that reason doesn't have to be "they were taken away too early". It could just be that's just the way they are.
Like Sabre. That's just the way he is.