When did your dog become "your" dog

[HayleyMarie]

Im starting to really, really enjoy Mitsu. I have to admit I was very hesitant to actually keep. Her temperment is not something I usually enjoy in a dog, but im finding out she is such a nice balance. And I do really enjoy her. Its nice to have a cuddly, sweet, non snarky dog. I think Mitsu and Teagan balance each other out.

So now I do consider her a part of my family.

So when did you realise that your dog was a part of your family??

[Linds]

This moment:


IMG_3400 by Traveling Koolie, on Flickr

Seriously though, I felt a lot of the "He's mine" when I first say his little guinea pig picture. But when I got him home and was sitting outside with him everything just clicked and I knew he was my boy.

[CaliTerp07]

The minute I brought her home from the shelter. It was pouring rain on the way home (the edge of a hurricane!), but we still cracked the windows and let her poke her nose out to enjoy the sniffs. She was sopping wet by the time we made it from the car to our apartment (so were we!), so we had to towel her off as best as we could before she ran through the apartment.



To this day, she LOVES rolling around on damp towels.

Then she ran circles around our tiny apartment, jumping on beds, over sofas, and eventually sitting still long enough to be held for a picture.



My heart was melted, my doggy was happy. She's just radiated pure joy and love of life since the day we brought her home.

[RD]

I didn't bond with Eve the day I met her, like some people do with their puppies.

I really knew she was mine when she was about 5-6 months old and I began to notice that she was always watching me out of the corner of her eye, and always watching out for me.

[thehoundgirl]

With Buster, we knew he was ours when we picked him out from the litter. I mean who could resist this face?!


Rudy isn't really "my" dog, actually. He has more of a bond with my parents and we have never clicked. I really do love him though!

Dixie - when I first saw her when the animal control officer brought her in one night that I was working. And, this... I lost her wooing pics I took at the shelter.

[sassafras]

Pip, when I saw his Petfinder picture. I can't find it, but it was very similar to this picture (which was taken his first few days home):


Sure, I went through the formality of meeting him, but I was lost already.

Squash, when I saw this picture:


I filled out a puppy application it turns out his first momma thought that he was a good fit for me out of his litter, but again... I was just lost at the sight of him.

Maisy... took awhile. I wasn't honest with myself about it at the time, but in retrospect I really wanted her to be just like her predecessor, Roxy. I wanted Roxy II. And she is nothing whatsoever like Roxy was. So it took awhile for us to bond. It was probably close to 6-8 months after she came home that she and I really finally figured each other out and truly clicked, now I can't imagine why I didn't want her to be herself all along.

[Catsi]

Well, I was pretty in love with Abby when I first bought her home... BUT

I wouldn't say I had fully bonded with her until she was around 18 or 20 months.

The puppy time was fun, but as I discovered her temperament issues my dreams and expectations were shattered. And I felt really wretched and completely incompetent as an owner. It was all very upsetting at the time.

And she has always had this independence and a slight toughness about her that I wasn't sure how to handle at first.

But working with her and building up that working relationship which I didn't really have to begin with was what made us. I loved that puppy, but I freakin' adore my adult dog, warts and all. It's a very strong bond.

[AussieAshley]

With Desoto it was instant, we just clicked. He decided he wanted to come home with me and followed me everywhere. While the rest of the litter was off sleeping in a heap he was leading a reign of terror all around the room and I knew in that moment he was mine.

Radar I loved form the minute I picked him up and snuggled into my arms at his foster moms house BUT he didn't really feel like mine until a couple of weeks in. We where his fifth home in his short life and it took him a little while to settle in. It was when he started to get used to having Duke around and started to play with him and started to be his sassy little terrier self that we started to bond. When he realized though there where three people in the house that he was MINE and he started to follow me around and get excited to go places and do things with me and we where making progress with his training that he felt like mine. Now I can't imagine life without him.

[Toller_08]

It took a few months with Dance. I loved her immediately, but it wasn't until Tango passed that I bonded a lot more with Dance.

With Ripley it was pretty instant, and that's why we have him. We did not want another dog at the time really, but I took care of him and his littermates for much of their time with their breeder, and I fell for him and so did my mom.

And Keira was never intended to be mine. She was the family dog/my mom's dog. But I'm really, really enjoying her now that she's a little older. As a puppy, she caused a lot of frustration for everyone and while I loved her, there were many days I didn't actually like her. She created chaos. But she's an awesome dog now that she's found her brain and she and I have been bonding a lot more and I am discovering just how truly good she is (for me). So much so that I think I might turn her into my sport dog. She's unflappable in public, is friendly and relaxed with people and dogs alike, and she's developing a focus she never used to have at all. I'm really enjoying her a lot and she's becoming my go to dog for everything, so I'd really like to start working with her more and taking some different classes and such to use her new found brain and develop a better relationship with her. I wish she liked to play more with people/had more play drive period, but other than that and as weird as it is for me to say, she's grown into pretty much everything I have ever wanted in a dog.

[sparks19]

never lol. they are hubby's dogs. I get left out in the cold LOL