# Can my dog prefer other people?



## VolumeDealer (Apr 1, 2012)

Hey everyone. I am a new dog owner and this is my first time here.

Well, I have always had a dog growing up, but I finally have my own dog. She is a husky/german shepard (to the best of my knowledge) and she is about 8 months old.

Anyways, I have a bit of an issue that's upsetting, and I figured that here would be a good place to ask about it.

My dog seems to like my parents house better than her own home. Whenever she sees either of my parents, she goes ballistic for them like she hasn't seen them in ages. And when they leave, she whines and gets upset at the door. I often bring her over to my parents house for them to babysit, and it is often extremely hard to get her to leave. It's almost as if she prefers my parents to me and it is getting quite upsetting.

The latest issue is that I was gone away for 2 weeks, during which time, my dog stayed with my parents. When I got home, she was excited to see me, but nowhere near the level she normally is when she sees my parents. I chalked this up to her being overwhelmed by the airport, but when my father came over this morning to shovel my steps, she reacted just as excitedly as she normally does....even more so than when she hadn't seen me in 2 weeks!

As you can imagine, having my dog love my parents more is upsetting. I was wondering if anyone here could put my mind at ease and maybe explain this type of behaviour. Is there anything that I could be doing wrong? I am a very caring and loving pet owned, I am just a bit worried that she sees my parents as her actual owner and not me.


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## bonesygirl (Mar 2, 2012)

I don't really have any advice, but I can tell you that I think my puppy prefers my mom. She (my mom) is constantly feeding Bonesy treats, so when my mom's around, it's like I don't even exist. It's incredibly frustrating, so I definitely feel your pain. I rationalize it by thinking that Bones is always around me, but my mom represents something new that causes treats to rain down from the sky.


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## Niraya (Jun 30, 2011)

Think of it like this: You have two friends; One friend you see all of the time, everyday, every other day, what have you. The other friend you only see once every month or every year. When you see that other friend are you not more excited/happy to see them than you are to see the friend that you see every day/every other day?

Dogs are the same way. They don't necessarily understand that the people they love have to leave sometimes or why they have to. So when they do leave and the finally see them again it's like "OMG I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN SO LONG I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU LEFT OMGOMGOMG".

It can also be that - your parents give her things, like table scraps, or special treats/toys and your dog knows that she gets special things or special food from them so it makes her doubly excited.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

As Niraya said, dogs like novelty. Altho your pup gets more excited with other folks (who spoil her), she will learn to love you with time.

MY dog did the same thing. And, 11 years later, he still gets very excited to see other people, jumping and barking. He never jumps and barks when he sees me... BUt when we go for a walk, he wants me to come to meet and greet. And, after he's gotten some attention, "Are you ready to go?" ... and he's excited to leave with me...


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