Thursday, July 30, 2009

Favoritism with a 1 y/o German Shorthaired Pointer?

My boyfriend and I adopted a 1 year old German Shorthaired Pointer from our local SPCA on Saturday. It is now Thursday and "Hannah" is showing so much favoritism towards me and kind of ignoring my boyfriend. I take Hannah to work with me everyday and she spends most of the day sitting with me at my desk and playing with the other dog in the office. My question is..is there anything he can do when we get home so Hannah will pay more attention to him and not follow me every step I make when we are home? I left last night for almost 3 hours and he said that Hannah sat by the door and whinned for 45 minutes after I left. Please help, it is upsetting my boyfriend!
Answers:
Yes..tell him to start interacting with her more. Take her for a walk. (without you) take her out in the yard to play, take her to obedience class, take her for a walk outside around the local shopping mall to socialize her. Right now you are taking the dog with you everywhere you go. That's good, but it's also giving her the idea YOU are it. So tell your BF to get the leash and spend a half day with her as much as possible so she bonds a little better with him, too. It will also help the dog to feel more secure in her new home with her new family. :)
And right now your dog could also have a fear of either you going away or the dog itself being sent away. Think about where she came from..
Sure. Let him be the one to feed Hannah, groom her, take her for walks (without you), play ball with her, do some obedience with her. Dogs bond closest to the person who is their main care-giver. He needs to do things with her when you're not present. When you left for 3 hours, she wouldn't have been whining at the door for 45 minutes if he'd taken her for a walk or played ball with her!
He needs to spend quality time with her.
Walking grooming and feeding and training or doing something with her.
As she now spends most of her time with you she is bonding with the person who is her main care giver. That would be you at this point.
He needs to be more involved with her.

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