As I type this, Savannah is running back and forth from the breakfast room to the TV room. She has taken all of her toys out of her new toy box (a gift from JAS's daughter) and she has put them up on the sofa in the exact spot where my husband usually sits. Unfortunately, he isn't home to see Savannah's gifts to him.
My husband and Savannah are still at arm's length. Or I guess I should say that Savannah is keeping him at paw's length. He, along with another male neighbor, has gotten the cold shoulder (cold paw?) from Savannah since her arrival here. Try as we might, and we do keep trying, Savannah rarely walks over to my husband on her own, and when he approaches her, she turns around and walks the other way and sits down, making him walk up to her for petting. I know how frustrating that must be, and I told my husband that the treatment he is now getting from Savannah is the same that I had received from our old dog Gracie so many years ago.
It was hard for me to accept Gracie's behavior when she was a puppy, especially when I was the one who was carrying home the dog food, feeding her, brushing her, walking her most of the time, and being the 'bad guy' and taking her to the vet's office for check-ups. So I can emphasize with my husband regarding Savannah's slow acceptance of him.
Right this very minute, Savannah is sitting on the couch. I didn't see her jump up there, but I did hear her tag jingling as she jumped... she landed right on top of one of her squeaky-toys, all of which she has piled up on my husband's side of that sofa. She is laying down amidst all of those toys, and I wish my husband were here to see her. What I don't know is this.... has Savannah given those gifts to my husband by placing them in his seat, or is she silently telling him that she has taken his favorite place on the sofa? Heaven only knows what this puppy is thinking.
Regarding the thought processes of puppies and dogs, I bought a book called "What Is My Dog Thinking?" by Gwen Bailey. The sub-title is "The Essential Guide to Understanding Pet Behavior." I've read other dog books over the years and I thought maybe this one would give us a clue as to Savannah's reluctance to bond with my husband. We've also searched the Internet for suggestions and my husband found an article that said he needs to sit down in her space rather than having me practically drag her over to him for petting.
When our friend Gloria (dog lover extraordinaire) came over here on the first day to meet Savannah, she sat right down on the floor and waited for Savannah to go near her, which didn't happen. So Gloria just sat there talking and talking and talking to both me and Savannah, thinking that the puppy would get to recognize her voice and learn that she was not a threat. Gloria repeated that process on three separate days, each time bringing a puppy toy and sitting down on the kitchen floor and just talking and talking to Savannah. That process worked for Gloria, and I'm hoping it also works for my husband. I love that Savannah has bonded with me so quickly but I don't want her to be a one-person dog even if that one person is me.
Because of Savannah's size, she is already nearly as tall and as long as our Gracie was as an adult dog. I keep reminding myself that Savannah is still a puppy, she's not even six months old yet. For such a young puppy, and having been here just a bit over two weeks, she is incredibly well-behaved and hasn't even had one 'accident' in the house. She goes into her crate when I tell her to, she is gentle with the cats, and she has learned to Sit! on command (at my command... I don't know if that will apply when my husband tells her to Sit! but I sincerely hope so).
When we adopted Gracie in 1996, she was an 8-week-old puppy who bonded immediately with my husband and tolerated me when he was not at home. Every ounce of adoration that Gracie carried in her body was saved for my husband, but she did follow me around the house when he was at work. Gracie didn't like to eat alone in the kitchen, so I would stand at the counter doing something, anything, so she would have company while she ate.
When we lived in Clear Lake, our kitchen was small and Gracie would lie down in the middle of that floor and I'd have to walk around her as I got dinner ready. After moving up here to the Hill Country, to a larger house with a much bigger kitchen, Gracie would still sleep in the middle of the kitchen floor and I'd have to walk around her to get a meal prepared. I distinctly remember one day during the year that would be Gracie's last with us, and she was in my way constantly in this kitchen. I looked at her and said "Gracie! For goodness sake! We have 23 acres here and you are still always right under my feet!" What I got in return was the saddest look I'd ever seen on that dog..... and I immediately regretted my words and I apologized to her. Sounds silly now, but that's what happened. And I don't regret the apology... sometimes apologizing to your pets is just something you have to do, as long as you're sincere about it. (Pets never lie about love, and they can spot a fake from a mile away.) After Gracie's passing, I often thought of that particular afternoon and knew that I would have given just about anything to have her laying down, right smack in my way, in the middle of that kitchen floor.
And now we have Savannah, who has started to follow me from the kitchen to the breakfast room, from the breakfast room to the TV room, and back again to the kitchen. She also seems to not want to eat alone if her food bowl is in the kitchen and I'm in another room. And, just like Gracie, when I'm doing something in the kitchen, Savannah is right there smack in the middle of that kitchen floor and I'm having to either step over or around her. And I'm doing just that, with a smile on my face and the memory of Gracie in my heart.
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