Bonding To A Single Person

[Guest metoman]

Just curious what the collective experience was on this. Do greyhounds normally pick one person with whom to (really) bond?

[Guest TheDoggfather]

The one who feeds 'em and gives 'em treats.

[JAJ2010]

All of my dogs have bonded with one person (they choose who) and still love the rest of the family. My greys are no different.

[Guest quietstorm]

The one who feeds 'em and gives 'em treats.

[Guest awvase]

2 of our 3 have bonded more with my wife, but our 17 month old pup has bonded more to me, she also listen to me more

[Houndless]

I have to say that Tank is bonded to me the most. No matter where I am in the house he's there. As for my dad or husband. He could take them or leave them. I guess mommy gives the better scritches.

[BootsyCollins]

Our current hound will bond with anyone who comes along. He is an equal opportunity lover. Our last pup was only bonded with me and had no interest in anyone else, except to take treats from them when offered.

[Guest LindsaySF]

It depends on the dog. Some dogs love everyone, some bond to a certain person.

[winnie]

Celeste - She loves everyone doesn't matter if she knows you or if you're a complete stranger. As a result, she has become our "go to" grey for M&Gs and adoption days.

 

Darcy - She definitely seems to prefer women (although he likes DH just fine). She has a couple of people that she is immediately drawn to - don't know why she picks who she does though.

 

Bonny - Total Daddy's girl. She likes me just fine, but she constantly follows DH.

 

We both take turns feeding and walking our greys. I usually have the "morning shift" while DH has the "evening shift."

[Guest caelanarcher]

Aaron's weird. I feed and (mostly) walk him (kind of complicated; fiance walks him down the stairs, then I walk him around the neighborhood). He follows me room-to-room. If he's lying down and I get up, he gets up too, and he'll come when I call him. He won't do that for my fiance. I guess he likes me. But my fiance? Aaron LOVES Daddyguy. LOVES LOVES LOVES. He'll turn himself inside-out just to be near him.

 

I think it's reflected in our nicknames for him.

My nicknames for Aaron: Shadow, Creeper, StalkerDog, Velcro.

Daddyguy's nicknames: Wiggles, Chopper (for his 'copter tail), Nutbuster (again... for his 'copter tail).

 

So I guess, it's not that Aaron's bonded with one of us MORE than the other, just that he's bonded with us differently.

[Guest Sunset123]

Arrisa LOVES meeting new people, but is bonded only to me. My husband doesn't understand why she will play with me and not him (usually), and why she cries when I leave even when he's still in the house.

[Guest Greyglo]

It depends on the dog. Some dogs love everyone, some bond to a certain person.

 

Same experience here.

[Guest Jubilee251]

Aaron's weird. I feed and (mostly) walk him (kind of complicated; fiance walks him down the stairs, then I walk him around the neighborhood). He follows me room-to-room. If he's lying down and I get up, he gets up too, and he'll come when I call him. He won't do that for my fiance. I guess he likes me. But my fiance? Aaron LOVES Daddyguy. LOVES LOVES LOVES. He'll turn himself inside-out just to be near him.

 

I think it's reflected in our nicknames for him.

My nicknames for Aaron: Shadow, Creeper, StalkerDog, Velcro.

Daddyguy's nicknames: Wiggles, Chopper (for his 'copter tail), Nutbuster (again... for his 'copter tail).

 

So I guess, it's not that Aaron's bonded with one of us MORE than the other, just that he's bonded with us differently.

 

Yes! Molly too, with me and my husband. I am the one who feeds her, walks her, does obedience training with her, and it's clear she loves me. But if Daddy says "HI PUPPERS!" she will go NUTS.

 

My rationale is that I take care of her so much and am with her so much more, so the nuggets of attention she gets from Daddy are like precious gold.

[Guest MyBoys]

Our 10 year old boy Murphy adores my DH, he actually sulks when DH is out of town on business, when he is home it's almost like nobody else matters. I think the picture says it all

My other two boys love my DH, but they are true Momma's boys.

[sobesmom]

Well - it really depends on your perspective. A lot of greyhound-only owners will answer this one way - and a lot of people who've had other breeds will answer it differntly.

 

So - I'm going to try to do both from my personal experience.

 

In GENERAL - I'd say - that most greyhounds don't bond to only one person exclusively. I think most greys are open to connecting to many people. I've had fosters here, that bonded closely to me, but before they came to me, they bonded with their trainer, and after they were adopted, they bonded to their new owner. Grey are open to bonding to new people, as the situation presents itself. In a household - will they "probably" pick one person they like best - yes, for many - probably the primary care-giver. Some treat everyone in the house the same. A grey will find a person they bond with - and if the situation changes - they'll bond with the new person.

 

This is a contrast to Dobermans, for example. We had a Dobie years ago. He was a 1 person dog. He picked me as "his person". He was MY dog (his choice, not mine, my DH wanted the dog, I did not - but the dog chose ME). He was fine with the other people in the house - but he was MY DOG - by HIS choice. Dobies are desperately loyal to a fault - to ONE PERSON. I don't think we could have re-homed that dog and he'd ever pick a new person. They're a ONE PERSON dog.

 

Now - among greys - our Sobe - was MY SOBE. He was MY boy. It was very obvious that he was MY dog - and I was HIS human. But - our other grey - Diana - is the family's dog. She is bonded to everyone equally. She needs no prefernces. And - she could bond with other peole in a different home. Sobe could not have, but he was not the "norm" among greyhound, in my opinion. The 12 or so fosters that have lived here - went on to bond with their new families.

[RobinM]

I consider all my hounds my babies. I feed them, I give treats, clean poop. DH does 90% of the walking. I am the one who gets down on the floor every night and spends cuddle time with each of them. I am the one who goes in the back yard and plays zoomies with them. I am the one who plays inside games with them.

 

If we are both downstairs along with the pups and he goes up, they will stay down with me. If I go up, they all go up.

 

With that said, they all love him too! Elsie is the only one who likes Rich and tolerates him but she is 100% my girl!

[maggiespet]

Maggie, the greyhound, is 100% a momma's girl. To the point of it being quite sad when I go out - she cries. Sam, the mutt pup - he takes his lovin' where ever and from whomever will dish it out!!

[Guest KennelMom]

Some of our greys have a definite preference for DH, some have a definite preference for me. Some seem to have no preference. We split feedings and both work from home so we're pretty much equal in that respect. I think sometimes a dog just gravitates to some energies/personalities more than others, whether that's a human or another dog.

[Guest kydie]

When Mr Bob first came he seemed to go to men first for attention, I thought maybe that had to do with "track life". you know more men have given care to him in the past? but now there is no doubt it is me , as I am the primary care giver In our pack of 4 the setter is bonded to DH, no doubt about it, as the pup is a hunting partner with him,and that is more infortant than food to a hunter, and they inseparable!

Edited April 8, 2010 by kydie

[gazehund]

All 6 of my guys have been firmly bonded to me........the food dispenser.

Kia loved her Daddy though. Not as much as the FD, but she did love him.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

My DH hardly ever even interacts with my dogs. They all definitely prefer me. I do all the walking, feeding, grooming, and am home with them all day. That said, several of them really like him, but if I leave the room, they get up and follow me. Monet actually will go out of her way to avoid him. It makes him sad! He really loves dogs. He shares the duty with me on Biff, my deceased BIL's dog we just inherited, and Biff's kennel is in the living room where DH spends most of his time. So, they have a good bond and I am glad.

[Guest jenznaz]

DH and I have always split responsibilities evenly. Our first, Naz, was totally "my" dog; we were very, very connected to each other. Our new guy doesn't seem to have a preference, he seems to split affection between me, husband and my son. Not sure if it will change since we've only had him since the end of Feb.

 

I sure do miss my attached-at-the-hip baby, tho

[Guest burgerandfrey]

Just curious what the collective experience was on this. Do greyhounds normally pick one person with whom to (really) bond?

 

I think our two greys have bonded equally to both my wife and to me. Same with our previous grey. Our girl Lola is a little more independent, but Zeke is a Velcro boy. He will follow one of us around much of the time...usually my wife. When he isn't following us around he likes to sleep where he can see one of us. While Lola doesn't feel the need to stick so close to us, she does like to snuggle on the sofa or in the bed more than Zeke. But as far as picking one of use or the other? No... I think all four of us have bonded well. All three greyhounds we have had have also been very welcoming to newcomers and have even bonded quite a bit with our neighbors and frequent visitors. I think this is pretty normal unless you have a shy dog who needs more time to develop a level of trust. And some dogs are just more independent than others, so you can't always judge the bond based on what others describe. I will say that both my wife and I interact a lot with our dogs, and we take them with us whenever possible. If one of us paid more attention to the dogs while the other ignored them things might be different. And yes, we both give them treats!

[Guest Wasserbuffel]

It's too early for me to say having Jayne for just a month. But outside myself and my husband she goes absolutely insane for one of our male friends. She gets wiggly and jumpy and screams for attention while he pets her.

[Guest krystolla]

I've heard that male dogs are more likely to bond with women, and female dogs with men but reading the descriptions here it's obvious that's not always the case.

 

My boy, Hack, is momma's boy but I think that's because I'm here more -- my husband works long hours. Never underestimate the food-dispenser effect. Hack isn't as drastically clingy as my one-person-only cat, who made it clear no one else was permitted near HIS person unless he gave permission. It took a year or so of negotiation to get Gizmo to accept my husband (boyfriend at the time). Thankfully Hack doesn't go in for the abusive boyfriend routine.

 

Now, my mom's golden retrievers are funny as far a bonding goes. Mom does the training, feeding, cleaning all that stuff so they love her. Mom is alpha dog. But Daddy, wow, they turn themselves inside out with excitement when Daddy comes home. And that's nothing compared to when my brother visits, that's doggy-head-exploding-with-joy time. Goldens are supposed to be pretty liberal with their affections but "the girls" do play favorites.