Comments on: Does Your Dog Hurt Your Feelings?

By: Kimberly Gauthier

Kimberly Gauthier — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 02:34:35 +0000

Our dogs used to hurt my feelings when they wanted to be with J instead of me. Now I get that dogs don’t love the way humans love – they don’t have favorites, they connect with me differently than J. I’m the nurturer, the’s the person they play with, I’m the walker and the person with the food. I’m also the Alpha (hee hee hee).

By: Jan K

Jan K — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 14:27:46 +0000

Sometimes we’ll be snuggling one of the dogs, and they’ll get up and leave. We really feel like we were bothering them and yes, that does hurt our feelings! 🙂

By: Clowie

Clowie — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 08:20:36 +0000

Someone always wants to make a fuss of me when we’re out – I’m fine with that, I love the attention. But sometimes the person wants to give me a treat and I don’t usually want the treat – they can get quite upset. The bipeds usually explain before the person tries now, but they still get disappointed. I eat it if the treat is nice, but I don’t see why I should eat substandard treats to please someone!

By: Pamela

Pamela — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:53:10 +0000

In reply to slimdoggy. Everyone knows how competitive Steve is. Maybe Jack is just trying to keep him striving. :)

By: Pamela

Pamela — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:47:14 +0000

In reply to Callie, Shadow, and Ducky's Mom. And there you've captured it. Our dogs respond to the person who takes the most time with them. And I know that no matter how busy you get with school or life, you always make time for special moments with all your girls.

By: Pamela

Pamela — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:45:34 +0000

In reply to Beth | Daily Dog Tag. Until Honey, none of my previous dogs got terribly excited about visitors. It actually kinda hurt my feelings that they could never know how special they were because they weren't extroverts. BTW, my experience has been that it's well worth making friends with the shy (people and dogs). I just have to temper my crazy extroversion so I don't scare them off. :)

By: Pamela

Pamela — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:42:43 +0000

In reply to Blueberry’s human.

A thick skin is a good thing. But I also think we’re less likely to get hurt feelings when we let our dogs (and people) be who they are without loading expectations on them. From what I read, you’ve definitely done that with Blueberry.

BTW, if all the nice comments about my husband go to his head and make him difficult to live with, I’ll be looking to re-home him. 🙂

By: Pamela

Pamela — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:38:48 +0000

In reply to Jodi. It would be hard to explain to your hubby that Sampson probably prefers your long walks in the woods to smooches from anyone. As for Delilah rental, a certain chocolate lab I call Mr. Handsome does a pretty good Delilah impersonation. :)

By: Pamela

Pamela — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:33:59 +0000

In reply to Kirsten.

I’d like to see research on dog “kisses.” Because I suspect it’s a ritual that expresses all kinds of different things for dogs besides affection (which is the way most humans see it).

Puppies kiss to encourage regurgitation or as an appeasement gesture. Perhaps Fozzie is responding differently to Florian’s energy than to yours?

Either way, Fozzie’s love for you is obvious to anyone who sees him. 🙂

By: Pamela

Pamela — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 15:22:29 +0000

In reply to Taryn. So maybe the only problem is John's snoring. Both dogs follow you so they can get a good night's sleep as well. :)