Thanks for liking us! Sadie and I really appreciate all the love!
I guess the time has come for me to admit to my greatest failing as a dog mommy – my dog has no friends. Sadie is completely isolated from canine society. I know this is mostly my fault because I didn’t bring her into situations where she could socialize often enough, but it’s also partly Sadie’s choice. She has no interest at all in other dogs. I tried to introduce her to my neighbors’ extremely well trained, ex-seeing eye dog, which is the only other dog on our street, but Sadie wouldn’t go anywhere near the German Shepard. While the German Shepard tried desperately to get close enough to Sadie to smell her, Sadie focused all her attention on sniffing the humans and keeping just out of the German Shepard’s reach. Once Sadie was done investigating the humans, she sat down on the other side of the lawn from the German Shepard, without ever giving a single sniff in the other dog’s direction. If we encounter a large dog on a walk, Sadie will sometimes hide behind me, to stay away from the other dog. If we encounter a small dog, Sadie completely ignores it and wants to sniff the owner instead. Sometimes the other little dog desperately wants to make friends with Sadie, but she will not pay it any attention at all. If we encounter a friendly little dog in the pet store, Sadie tries to pull me into the next aisle. Last week a Westie tried to say hi to Sadie while waiting on the checkout line, and Sadie ran behind the counter with the cashier. Even when we encounter another little dog with hostile intentions, Sadie could not care less. On our walks we occasionally run into a man who walks a Pomeranian. As soon as he spots us heading towards him, he gets this look on his face that says “oh crap, another dog” and he starts bracing for his dog to go nuts. Right on cue the Pomeranian goes insane barking and snarling and lunging, clearly hoping to eat Sadie for lunch. But Sadie remains completely impassive. She looks around, sniffs the ground, and waits patiently for me to continue our walk. She never even glances at the other dog.
So the question is: do I keep forcing Sadie into encounters with other dogs hoping she will someday take an interest, or do I let her do as she pleases and avoid other dogs completely?
This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.
This post is part of the #WoofSupport blog hop brought to you by Oz the Terrier, Roxy the Traveling Dog, and Wag ‘N Woof Pets.
Check out Slimdoggy‘s blog hop below for the latest A to Z challenge posts from my fellow pet bloggers.
Thanks for liking us! Sadie and I really appreciate all the love!
I think some dogs just prefer the company of people. Torrey loves to make friends and play with other dogs. Roxy has never had an interest in that, She will sniff, say hi, then walk away. She plays with Torrey, but not very often.
Roxy the traveling dog recently posted…WOOF Support blog hop #3
The first line almost made me cry. But it’s not true. She has you. And if she’s okay not having doggie friends, that’s okay. I say, let her avoid the other dogs. Keep her safe from them. You’re giving her a fulfilled life in so many other ways.
Kari recently posted…WOOF! I is for Isis
I don’t think you should blame yourself, I think it might just be Sadie’s personality that she doesn’t like other dogs. If she’s not aggressive towards them, then she doesn’t hate them, she just prefers the company of humans. I think that’s fine too. If you are just letting her be herself, that is being a good dog Mom too!
Thank you for joining the WOOF hop!
Jan K recently posted…10 Things I Love About Cricket #WOOF Support
I definitely lean towards letting the dog make the call. Dogs are perfectly fine with human companions, and this can be a completely fulfilling life for them. There are behaviorists out there that actually promote this. If I had to choose: would a dog spend 5 hours with a human they love or another dog they love, I’d absolutely choose human. I bet, so would most dogs. Tons of problems come from dog daycare and parks and so on – this so-called “socialization” is not always all its cracked up to be.
Tig is quite happy sniffing snout then tail, and moving on. She rarely wants to play, and I would never, ever encourage or force her to. Mort loves playing with other dogs, but will completely ignore them if there is a toy anywhere in the vicinity (he without a doubt prefers interacting with a person and a toy over any dog, bar none, no question).
Jen | DOGthusiast.com recently posted…Stylish Canine’s The A to Z of Things Dogs Love: Ice Cream! #AtoZChallenge
If your dog doesn’t show an interest, why force it? Jack doesn’t have much interest in other dogs either. I think living in a shelter for a year he had his fill of them. I don’t force it.
Slimdoggy recently posted…8 Tips on How to Jog with your Dog
I’m with the majority here: it’s Sadie’s call. As long as it doesn’t cause behavior problems (and it doesn’t sound like it does; on the contrary, it sounds like she’s got it all under control), I wouldn’t press the issue. If it really bothers you, though, maybe you can consult with a local trustworthy trainer to see if maybe a class or two on, say, agility, might be a good idea for socialization purposes. *If* you want to. In any case, Sadie looks like a super happy dog 🙂
Guilie @ Life In Dogs
Guilie Castillo recently posted…Just Listen (#atozchallenge)