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.

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