Quote:
Originally Posted by crystalg  Ok. Now my husband has swatted him also and when he is on his lap he has never done this to him. I may add that he is with me all day everyday. Sleeps in his kennel on my side of th bed at night. Why does he react that way to me the one he is closest to and not my husband |
Good question. Basically, we know nothing about this dog, or very little, so not much history to build off of. I have found that dogs either develop a gender preference in humans early on, or, as an older dog, he is choosing what HE is most familiar/comfortable with.
My Tink does the same thing. We adopted her from the shelter when she was 2 1/2 years old, a throwaway. To be honest, I'm happy that she found someone she can love, even if it's not me. I do the feeding and grooming, training and walks, but I swear she sees me as a sibling, she will always try to defy me or have the last word (she is a very vocal dog).
She lives for the moment my DH walks in the door. I can see her eyes light up, and she gets this googoo gaga expression on her face and insists that he pick her up and greet her where she sits on his lap and pets her and she gives him all these most delicate little sweet kisses. (Gag me with a spoon!) She melts for him! Funny though, after this ritual ends, she'll stay on his lap and look at me, like ''Na na I got Daddy! and you don't!" If I don't watch them, the greeting is cut short. The whole thing is hysterical.
He asked me why she picked him... well, he has a beard, lol, so I said it's because he looks more like another dog! Hahaha. But I think it's more about how they were raised from puppyhood on up. Whatever happened to her, caused her to make these choices. IDK, maybe a lady was mean to her at one point in her life. Hard to say.
The thing is, now I choose how I react to this. At first my feelings were hurt, I think that's only natural, I am human, lol. But when I really look at the situation, I am truly happy for both my DH and Tinkerbell, and I'm glad they have something very special together. I won't do anything to lessen this bond between them, but I am trying to build my own bond with Tink. At this point, I want more, but right now it's a workable relationship. I did find out that Tink loves kayaking. When we got back, she followed me around like a god! We'll be doing more of that, lol!
Each dog is different. Encourage the good things you see, and try to work on eliminating the bad. It's easier to work on the things that you see in this dog, as opposed to trying to make him like another dog.
I talked about Peek A Boo in another thread, he wakes up nasty too. But, funny story... Peek liked both me and my DH, although he was a Momma's boy at the same time. Well, he loved to lay on DH's lap when DH was in the recliner. Bad thing though, DH was not allowed to get up or even move, lol, as Peek would fall asleep and then growl if DH twitched a leg! I said just ignore him and pick him up! Well Peek tried to tear into DH, but settled right down and went back to sleep. We're talking about a 250 pound man being held hostage by a 6 pound Yorkie! I never laughed so hard in my life. So I would go over to the chair, gently wake Peek up, and pick him up so DH could get up.
Just a note: I don't aim to have 'perfect' dogs, and it depends on a lot of things, but sometimes a work around is better for me.