Posted by Dinah on July 20, 2009, at 8:20:36
In reply to Re: Are sheepdogs born or made? » Dinah, posted by TherapyGirl on July 19, 2009, at 19:43:47
:)
Yes, some dogs move happily enough on, even when they are attached. Most do, really. The one man dogs I've known have been rare enough for me to remember.
The dog who was most attached to my mother, ever, used to wait by the door for a few hours, but if she was gone for days, she'd happily attach herself to someone else until my mother came home. Yet another dog, who didn't appear as attached, would lie in the front door until she came home. Even the time she was gone for a month. And my dog Dinah was an adoptee after my aunt entered a nursing home. She absolutely refused to stay with my mother, who had picked her up from my aunt's home, and spent all her time with my mother trying to escape. When she came to live with me, she settled down with content if not delight, but she never attached to anyone here like she did to my aunt.
The time he did leave me, the worst of the pain did subside even in that short period of time. But I think I'd be more like the Dinah whose namesake I am. In the past, I've proved to be more like that with regard to attachment.
It sounds as if you're doing a great job with Bayleigh. She quite likely enjoyed being with her foster family and liked them very much. But she wasn't there an enormously long time and was likely preoccupied with her pups. It wouldn't be like the attachment that forms in a long term doggy relationship. Occasionally it's an instant fall in love sort of thing on their parts, but more often it's slower and more deliberate than that. My current dog decided I was her person in my family right away, but she didn't start becoming a one man dog until a year or so in.
poster:Dinah
thread:907223
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090706/msgs/907601.html