Is It Wrong...

To play favorites? Steven has pointed out that I allow far more from Knox than I do Ozzy and Enzo. And I realized its true, but do they really care/know? Or is it just a human thing to recognize fairness?

Knox is starting to be allowed to sleep in the bedroom at night, with permission of course, but he sleeps on my side of the bed at the foot on the floor and doesn't move all night. Ozzy and Enzo have been banished because they sneak on the bed when we fall asleep and that bugs me to have them tracking dirt onto my clean bed.

And then Knox gets to go to work with me every day. Because he enjoys it. Enzo came with me for nearly a year but by the end of it was such a huge stress ball about me leaving her in a yard that she would just scream. So she stopped coming, and even though sometimes she will ask to come with me, I know from experience that she's not going to enjoy herself. Even if I'm going to see clients she can't handle me leaving for any length f time or being crated and me leaving.

Ozzy cannot come to work with me because he's extremely aggressive sometimes and that is not the environment to put him in.

Steven says that this isn't fair to Ozzy and Enzo and that I'm playing favorites. I feel like, yeah I guess I am, but Ozzy and Enzo have each other as well as Steven and I. Knox only has me and Steven because Ozzy and Enzo ignore him.

I definitely played favourites with the ferrets... Rascal was everybody's favourite. It's just how it was, so he got to come out first, he got more treats, and he got baby food cuddle time.

Now Harley is the favourite, because she will cuddle with you and love you, while renegade doesn't care about you and just wants to run -- so he bites you. I can tell Renegade knows he's being cheated, he's so frikkin jealous lately and god forbid I take Harley alone anywhere. That's what he gets for being a jerk

Traveler is the favorite. I know, you all are so surprised.

With Kaylee its because she is everything I don't like or want in a dog so its hard to include her sometimes because she doesn't like most things other than food, isn't reliable off leash, is nervy around people and isn't built well. On top of all that working work her frustrates me. So yeah, Traveler is so much more well behaved, trust worthy and fun to work with.

Though I really do try to make sure Kaylee gets extra one on one attention because she misses out on a lot.

Sam is the only dog in the house, but boy does he get jealous if he thinks he should be the one getting attention and another pet is. Even with the hamsters. He just suddenly has to show off or push me away from what I'm doing, once he gets a good pet he'll back off for a bit. He doesn't do it all of the time, but when he does you know.

The cats sometimes get jealous and my rats would as well when I had them.

I try not to play favourites because they sure seem to get what is going on.

It's funny, one thing that bugged me before adding a second dog was the fear that I would feel so guilty about doing stuff with a new dog and leaving Solo behind.

I got over that fast. Panzer is totally my favorite and I do everything with her. I train her all the time, take her out more often, and feed her better food. However, when she was a pup, she slept in her crate in the living room (now in a crate in the bedroom) and Solo always gets to sleep loose and often in bed.

Dogs adjust to new circumstances quickly, and I don't think they compare their reality and set of rules to other dog's.

Elsie's life is better than Zobby's. He's not my dog, but her life is awesome in comparison. She goes more places, is included in my family's trips and outings, gets more treats and training time, goes on more hikes and walks... But part of that is that I have a car and my boyfriend doesn't, and that Elsie is a lot more demanding than Zobby is(5 year old peke mix vs. 17 month old Terv, lol).

She also has more toys and blankets than he does.

Linds, I totally thought kaylee was the favorite!

But yeah, Knox goes everywhere, gets more training time, one on one time, with me than the other two. I've basically given up on doing anything outside of happy home life and some hiking with the other two because they both have issues once they get outside of the front doors. Knox doesn't. He isn't reactive, aggressive, squirrelly, ect

Plus a few other things, and yeah Knox goes just about everywhere with me.

Gavroche is my favorite and gets away with FAR more than Logan does. But Logan gets more training time with me since he requires it.

It's pretty clear to anyone that knows me that Gavroche is my favorite, and EVERYONE'S favorite lol. But he's my heart dog, I can't help it

Hmmm... I think I'm pretty good about giving equal love and attention. I'll have to ask Jon when he gets home, I think he'd notice it more than I do. Bobsie is the only one who sleeps on the bed, though. Doom would be allowed to if he WANTED to, but he likes to patrol the perimeters at night so he stays on the floor. Piglet had an issue that everyone already knows about when she first got here so she sleeps on a makeshift dog bed right now... Fixing to turn it into a REAL dog bed if I can get off of my butt. LOL

Other than that, we all train at the same time, if I give one yum yums, I give them all yum yums (I hand them out based on who does what I asked first. IE if I say "sit" and Bobsie sits first, then Doom and then Piglet, Bobsie gets one, then Doom gets one and then Piglet gets one, I've yet to have anybody sit at the same time. LOL!)
If we go somewhere, other than the vet, everyone goes, if we're playing in the yard, everyone gets to come out and play (except Bobsie, Bobsie is far to dignified to play. She just lays in the sun.)
They all have to work for their food, and they all get fed at the same time.
Nobody gets away with bad behavior here, NOBODY.

Having typed all this out, I think I may possibly be completely insane. LOL!!!

I spend WAY WAY more time with Keegan than I do with Luna. I tell myself it's because he's younger and needs more work/attention, but secretly I do actually like him better, LOL. He's more fun to train, he's more fun to play with, he likes doing the things I like doing.... and also I like the way people look at me when I have him versus the way they look at me when I have Luna, if that makes sense.

I actually really need to do something fun with Luna this weekend, she's starting to get mopey.

Now that I think of it, for people who don't know me well it can look like Logan is my favorite, since he's almost always with me. But it's out of necessity. Gavroche has parking lot phobia, so where I used to take him everywhere and leave him in the car, he now only goes with me if he can either go in where we're going (pet stores), or if I'm not getting out of the car. Logan can go no matter what, unless I don't think he can handle a certain place or he shouldn't go to a certain place, and it's too hot to stay in the car. He's not working full time yet though.

But at the end of the day, Gavroche is still my favorite <3

Jack is definitely my favorite - I highly prefer him over Missy. I mean, I like Missy, but I LOVE Jack. His personality, his size, everything - it just suits me better.

Although my Mom definitely prefers Missy, so it works out. We each have "our" dog, so nobody feels guilty.

Kiba is definently the favorite, followed by Lincoln and Charlie. Kiba is also my #1 dog to do anything related to agility with. They are just more my type of go anywhere and do anything kinda dogs and personality-wise what I like in a dog. Though I'm trying more to like working with Stryder and Tsuki, I love them dearly but they can both be frustrating to work with sometimes.

Recently when I decide to take a dog, or work on something with a dog, I use a random number generator to pick the dog. LOL (Yes I am lame).

Since this is exactly what I was going to write, I'll just stalk you.

OTOH, I expect WAY more from Blaze, yet he is probably the favorite. So, being the favorite might be a bad thing. . .

I don't know. I was going to say Payton is getting more training time right now since he's still a baby and is still learning a lot of basics, but Auggie gets more training time that isn't "we are going to work on this new behaviour" and is more "let's work on improving this skill" or "let's work on your muscle tone" or whatever. I mean, Payton is still learning a proper heel. Auggie once heeled on an entire five mile walk in the woods (NOT because I asked, but he found out I had cookies in my pocket and he maintained a beautiful heel our entire hike for the chance to get cookies... I can't exactly be mad about it, LOL, even though I really wanted us to just go hike and have some fun spending time together.) So we work on different things. I think it just feels like Payton gets more time because we are doing NEW stuff whereas Auggie mostly gets to rehearse and refine stuff. Also even when I do work on new stuff with Auggie, it doesn't quite feel new? I don't know how to explain it. Like I have decided to work on getting him to wrap his jumps tighter, which IS a new skill for him, but something about it doesn't feel like OMG NEW. I suspect it's because we have six years of teamwork between us and we each seem to really know what we're doing... whereas Payton isn't even a year old yet so we are still learning how to make that team function, so it ALL feels very new and unique and stuff.

But anyway, all that said... yeah, um... Auggie is my favourite. What am I supposed to do? He's my heart dog, LOL. I love him so much. We just get each other. If Payton tries to fall asleep at the top of my bed I will usually MOVE him just so Auggie can sleep on the pillow next to me... Payton is a nice little snuggle bug and on the rare occasion Auggie decides to sleep down at the bottom of the bed I love having him all cuddled up next to me, but... I would just rather have Auggie there haha.

But that doesn't mean I don't also love Payton. And Pepper too, God bless her, even though she is NOT my favourite dog to work with at all. I love both of them VERY much. It's just different with each of them, even between Payton and Pepper, it's just different.
But if somebody pointed a gun at my head and said I could only have one dog, I'm taking Auggie. I wouldn't even have to think about it. =P And I don't exactly feel bad admitting it.

Josie is the favorite. She goes everywhere with me and is pretty much by my side alot of the times. I just love how sound she is and willing to take any challenges without hesitation. She is so easy to work with too, i truly did not know what a real dog was until a German Shepherd came into my life . I do spend some time with the shelties though to be fair. I don't think dogs notice anyway, i think it's more to do with human emotions.

Lily is the favorite. However in the interest of of a peaceful household with two GSD mix bitches... they are treated equally in all things. Two of everything and both go everywhere with me.

Even already having her own, Lily was PISSED when I got Scout a blingy collar.

I try not to play favourites, and there are different things about each of my dogs that I prefer about them over another, but I think it's often pretty obvious that Dance is my world. And sometimes I think she knows it, but the Dobermans don't seem to mind. I try to give them all the same amount of attention, but I think Dance gets a little more some days. Dance is just pretty much everything I like in a dog and I enjoy her so much, so she's who I prefer to do most things with. Among so many other good things, she's happy, she's eager, she's fun, she's a nice size, she's a shadow without being overbearing about it, she's easy to live with and so on.

Admittedly, Keira and I don't have much of a bond. I love her and I know she loves me, but she's always been my mom's dog and I really haven't done a whole lot with her 1:1 when compared to the other two (though I've still done quite a bit with her). Mostly because she frustrates me to train and she doesn't like to play, but also because I have my own two to focus more on.

Ripley, OTOH, is very bonded to me, but his and my relationship is totally different than my relationship with Dance. He's such a derpy, constantly in your face dog that it can be more than a little frustrating at times and as a result, there are certain things that are just not that enjoyable to do with him as there are with Dance. Granted, on the same token, there are other things that I have more fun with him also that I don't with Dance. But it's just a different bond entirely. It's not that I love him less, but there's just an extra something with Dance.

Edit: As far as rights and privileges go, they all basically have the same ones. Except Dance is allowed on the couch (when I'm on it and I invite her up) and the Dobermans are not. The Dobermans take couch privileges too far and don't understand the whole being invited up thing (they just think it becomes their own personal bed all day, every day), and they take up too much space. And their hairs are pokey and give my mom and I hives. But they don't care about this minor difference in privileges between them and Dance. They understand that the big comfy beds are for them, and they're totally fine with it.

Teagan is the favorite, and will always be the favorite. She is my heart and soul. I am fostering a pitbull puppy right now and I am having a hard time really connecting or even developing a bond with the pup, which is actually a good thing. Lets hope my Boyfriend can do the same, but that also has me worried that maybe it will be like this when do eventually bring a Boerboel puppy into my home.

I don't say I have a favorite, but the dogs do get different privlages based on their behavior and manners. Zuma goes everywhere with me, literally. Due to Classic's specialness (size and attitude), he just isn't capable of doing that. That doesn't mean at home we have different rules or treat them differently.