# Bonding in a multi-dog household



## Jason L (Mar 20, 2009)

For those with more than one dog in your house, how would you rate your bond with each of your dogs. With which dog do you feel you have the strongest bond and with which dog do you feel you have the weakest bond and why do you think that is (both for the strong and the weak ones)?


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## shilohsmom (Jul 14, 2003)

Good question. I have three GSDs, Shiloh my oldest, Shoshona, my little girl and Eli, the baby. Since they are have different personalities its not so much about which bond is strongest but instead how each bond is displayed. 

Shiloh is much more independant so it would appear we have bonded less of the three. Shoshona on the other hand is very dependant and also Mama's little girl amoungst the three so it would appear the bond to be greater. Eli is my love child, he loves the world and everyone in it. For his it would appear that he bonds with everyone. 

I'm using the world 'appears' because thats what it would look like from the outside, the bond we share however is the same for all of them....it just appears different.


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## dOg (Jan 23, 2006)

I feel very close to all 3, perhaps closer to the oldest to the youngest in that order if only due to time in the bucket, so to speak. But I am older and we are empty nesters, kids grown and gone, so I have more time for them now then back when... the kids were little, we tried having more than one a couple of times, and the second suffered, due to not enough hours in the day. They didn't seem to mind, but I didn't feel as close to them as I did the others.


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

> Quote:
> the bond we share however is the same for all of them....it just appears different.


Here too. My kids are different. In some ways, they're alike. But they have their own quirks, idiosyncrasies, things that make me laugh (often hysterically), things that drive me crazy, and things that cause me to stop what I'm doing and snuggle with them right then and there. 

I've always had 2 and usually 3 dogs. I can't say that I've ever preferred one dog to another. I've had a heart dog who seemed to understand me better than the others, but at the same time, I had the other dog that was essentially my life-long partner (who was with me through several relationships til Dh and I got married, several moves, untold adventures and I couldn't imagine life without her) AND I had my dog who ended up being my service dog because he started to alert on my medical condition when he was still a young pup. Once he and I started his training, we became nearly inspeparable and I trusted him literally with my life. Three amazing dogs, three miraculous relationships. 

It takes time to develop these relationships. When I have a pup, he's kind of just a pup at first. He's charming and sweet, but it takes a bit of time to see his whole personality. I think that's partly because at first, he's bonding as much with the other dogs as he is with me. 

But as he starts to experience the world, gain confidence, learn skills, and I get a front-row seat at all of this, he blossoms more and more, and I see the depth and breadth of who he is as well. And I fall in love. Not "in love" like most people can fall in love with any puppy, but I fall deeply in love with the unique little individual that my dog is, his amazing traits, his weird characteristics (the ones that make me roll my eyes and laugh), the things that make him HIM -- the whole package.









I think if I felt I didn't have as strong of a relationship with one dog as the other(s), I'd feel compelled to do something about it. Take extra trips (around town and out of town) just with him, take agility classes, etc because that says to me that for me, I"m not putting enough of myself into the relationship.


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## Lauri & The Gang (Jun 28, 2001)

Mauser and I are close - when the other dogs are not around. If they are around he's more apt to seek out Sasha to play or Tazer to annoy

Kaynya and I are very close. Even if the other dogs are around she'd rather be with me. She was ready to leave the pups alone for the night when they were 3 weeks of age. By 5 weeks we HAD to remove her from them at night because she tried to claw her way through the door and injured her paws. She likes to be with them during the day or when I am with them but wants to be with me at night (she sleeps with us).

Sasha is a total Daddy's Girl and only listens to me when she HAS to. Most of the time she will look to Mike to see if she REALLY has to listen.







And this is the dog I drove 10+ hours home with, through the night, stopping at several fast food places to bribe her with tasty treats. Nope - Daddy's Girl from the moment she set eyes on him.

Tazer and I are very close but as he gets older he spends more snoozing time so we spend less US time.

Winnie is her own dog. She listens to use only when it suits her and sees us as her source of food.







She is a good dog - just VERY independent.


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## SuzyE (Apr 22, 2005)

I have had four dogs. Paige and Jazmin were only 8 months apart. Totally different personalities and both totally bonded to us. Jazmin was more everyone's dog. paige is mine. Cesar was mine also (GSD)but died young so who knows. Travis is 2 1/2. he is not as glued to me as Paige because he is half husky. He wants to be outside ALL the time. Paige is always with me in the house, she trails me. I love my velcro dog.


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## Deux (Aug 16, 2009)

My two seem to bond stronger with select members. The oldest is my daughter and myself, the younger is my wife and son. 

Yet at night the youngest stays with us and the older one goes with kids at bedtime. It is like they each share a guard job. 

And if you have bacon..... all bets are off! 

We just lost ( illness ) our younger one a few months ago. So we are down to one. We all miss her something fierce, she was a GSD that would not be ignored and would be the worlds biggest clown until you couldn't help but give in to her.


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## Ruthie (Aug 25, 2009)

Bison and I are close. He is with me 24/7 when I am at home. It has been that way since we brought him home. He was supposed to be DH's dog, but he prefers to hang with me. Now that we are doing SchH, the bond is getting even stronger.

Moose is different. I love the little guy, but he spends most of his time curled up on his bed. He doesn't really show any interest in what is going on in the household other than very happy greetings when we get home and spill watching when we cook. I would still be devistated if we lost him, but the bond isn't as close as with Bison.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

I have three GSDs and all would rather be with me than with each other.
Kacie is the most independant, as a rescue I don't think she had bonded before, or it was broken one to many times to trust again. But I share a wonderful bond with her, took her about 3 months before she decided that we weren't going to give her to someone else. Camera shy, too-thinks she is wanted somewhere?
she is not pushy enough though! If another dog gets in between us, she will retreat. 

Onyx is great, but too serious and not as goofy as Karlo, I think right now in this stage of his/our life, he is who I am most bonded to. He comes up and loves, snuggles w/me...thinks he is a lapdog.

Maybe it is a male thing, males seem to be more cuddly, where females are "on", can't just give up the job...

As far as training, I am training with Karlo only right now (because of the temperaments of the other two)~that really does strenghten the bond.


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

At one point I had 4 gsd's, they were all bonded to me more than the others,,

I have never had a dog who bonded to the other dog(s) in the household more than I..

Right now I have two aussies, a male and female, and Masi, my gsd.

Masi is like all my other gsd's, we have a very tight bond , my female aussie is also very bonded to me, the male, ahhh what can I say, he and I never have really "clicked", he is my husbands dog, and while he is a dog who will instantly do what you ask of him, I just don't feel the connection with him, that I do with my other two))

I'd say right now, Masi and I have the tightest bond,,she is a willing and eager pupil, and loves to do whatever I throw in front of her,,the aussie Jynx, love her to death, but she is more of the mindset, "it's all about me" LOL...what's in it for her..where Masi is "what can I do for you?"


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## mjbgsd (Jun 29, 2004)

I'm guilty.....I would choose Cody over my other two any day. He is my first dog and I will always have the strongest bond with him, after he goes, I don't think I can ever have as tight of a bond with a dog like I do with him. He's been there through almost everything in my life, (I'll be 20 in a week) and I just love him to pieces. He loves to cuddle with me and is always there when I'm in need, he has saved my life twice and is always there to comfort me when I'm sick or crying. It will be extremely difficult on me when it's his time....

With Isa, I never bonded with her until she was about 2 years. She was very independent for the first 2 years and just so hyper. Now at almost 5, she loves being in the same room with me, loves to jump up and give hugs but is not a cuddler. I do have a close bond with her but it isn't the same type that I have with Cody. 

Akbar, well, he's just Akbar....lol I do have more of a bond with him right now then I did with Isa at his age. I think I just have an easier time bonding with males, there's just something about male dogs I like. He aint no cuddle bug or giving kisses but he's just so happy to see me.


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

The bond with Yukon is stronger. I have him for half a year and even my husband can barely take him away from me. 
Zenzy is kind of like the same way, it is easier for my husband to taker her out but once I am working with Yukon and hubby is holding her, she starts barking and wants to be with me too. While Yukon loves laying next to me and to cuddle up, she doesn't like that at all. She's more the crazy "come and play with me" type of girl. Loves giving kisses and hugs. 

They are both very jealous of each other so I am trying to both treat them equally.


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## brodie (Feb 1, 2010)

My GSD bonded with my son right as soon as we picked him up from the breeder. He chose us, the other litter puppies were not interested. One of my siberian huskies bonded with my daughter and the other siberian husky bonded with me. Maybe we need a fourth dog to bond with daddy. Another GSD?


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## Zisso (Mar 20, 2009)

I want to say that my bond with my two are about equal, but I know this isn't true. I have a special bond with Z-he is my snuggle bug. He is the one who willingly lazes around the house with me and does not demand much. My special bond with Nadi is the opposite. She is my get up and go girl. Always wants to be doing something, running, playing and she will never turn down a snuggle either, but she just prefers to be on the go, so she keeps me on my toes. Special dogs, special bonds.


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## Cathygirl (Dec 29, 2006)

I have a very strong bond with all 3 dogs, but they all have different personalities.

Jessie, is a very, very gentle girl. Loves everyone, loves to be petted, but really does not like to be cuddled. She would rather get a few pets and kisses and then go lay down.

Tank gets his feeling hurt very easy. He is always smiling and showing a lot of love. He loves to be hugged and kissed and always looks to you for direction.

Max is the pushy boy, but also the most snuggly guy you could ever meet. When I lay down in front of the woodstove he is the very first to come over and plop down as close as he can to get snuggled. He could be my pillow and love it. 

I bond with all 3 in different ways. Not one is more stronger than the other, just different than each other. They love each other dearly, and it is very apparent that they do, but they look to us more than each other for that certain type of love.


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## TitonsDad (Nov 9, 2009)

By far the strongest bond is with Titon because we go everywhere, train together and spend most of our days together since I am home during the day. 

My 9 year old Boxer is a nut case and I don't think anyone can "bond" with her not on her terms.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

We have 4 dogs in our house. If you want to get technical Argos and Cade are Mommy's, and Anka and Ike are Daddy's dogs, and that pairing is more geared to suit ours and their personalities. Argos and Cade are more chill in the house and tend more towards snuggly. Anka and Ike and READY to GO. They are easily excited and don't quit. 

So for me Argos is dog#1. He's Mommy's baby and my first dog. But all 4 are like my kids. You love them all in different ways. Cade is my dog#2. But I train those 2, so we have a stronger bond. 

Anka is wholly Daddy's girl. I think my bond is probably the weakest with her, she won't give me the time of day if her Dad is in the room but she will just sit their and stare at him adoringly. She is definitely #1 for Justin. And Ike is the most recent addition and we haven't had him all his life, only about 3 months now. But it's really hard not to like Ike since he's such a happy, enthusiastic, eager to please dog. He has a preference for men over women in training, so he works with Justin, which forges a stronger bond. I so happy he came into our lives. 

I think I pick the dog also for the activity I'm doing. Anka walks best on a leash around the neighborhood (probably because she doesn't have to mark everything) so if I'm out jogging I like to take Anka. Argos is my snuggler and general good in the house dog. Ike is the most impressive and generally well behaved in public, so I like to take him out to eat (he really should be at 7  ). Cade is just silly goofy puppy fun. He's my best player.


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## Lauri & The Gang (Jun 28, 2001)

My strongest bond - Spike. He's basically been with me 24/7 since he was born. Even sleeps with us at night about 95% of the time! DH says he's TOO bonded to me - he cries when I leave the room. 

Weakest bond - a tie between Winnie and Sasha. With Winnie it's because she and Tazer were puppies together and while Tazer was into doing stuff with me, Winnie was into doing stuff with Tazer.

Sasha just prefers my husband over me.


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## Chicagocanine (Aug 7, 2008)

I only have one dog now but before Bianca I had two dogs. Bianca is pretty bonded to me and she bonded very quickly but it took me longer to form an attachment to her, I think I was still mourning my two senior dogs who I lost within 3 months of each other.
I had a terrier mix, Pooch and a Golden Retriever, Ginger. Ginger was my heart dog and we had an incredibly strong bond from both ends of the leash so to speak, we connected right away when I found her and she was my baby. Pooch being a terrier was much more independent than Ginger. We still had a good bond but he was more like a buddy whereas Ginger was more like a daughter or a soulmate. While I tried to give the dogs fairly equal treatment, Ginger would always get everything first since she was the dog I had first and the "higher ranked" so to speak. Part of that again was Pooch's personality/breed as he was not a cuddler or a needy dog. Part of it was also that Ginger was very quiet, laid back and well behaved and had extensive training so she was allowed to go more places than Pooch who tended to be a barker, was very active and not as obedient. 

They were quite bonded with each other as well, if we were out and a family member held one dog and I held the other and we separated, each dog would watch for the other dog in the crowd-- if they saw a dog that looked similar they would get excited. (Of course they did the same with me if they were separated from me.)

My dad used to call them Mutt and Jeff.


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## Heidifarm (Sep 20, 2006)

I have good bonds with both Heidi and Lucas, but they are very different.


Heidi we got when she was 12 weeks old. Admittedly, we were unprepared for all that would come, I knew nothing about the different lines of GSDs or anything (wish I had found this website first!) She was such an insane puppy, we actually questioned at times if we could do it, but with the right training and exercise, she turned in to an awesome dog (and we turned into better parents!) I think the fact that we struggled so much in the beginning really bonded us together and we never gave up on each other. We also recently started training in SchH. which has bonded us even more. I always feel safe when she's around.


Now Lucas is completely different. We got him at 4 months old and he was SUCH an easy going puppy! I could hardly believe he was the same breed as Heidi. Lucas was very shy in the beginning so he became attached to me when we went to puppy class, and getting him to come out of his shell became our bonding time. He's so goofy that it's hard for me not to smile when I see him. He's also the cuddly on out of the 2 so when it's time to watch TV on the couch, Heidi will lay at the other end of the couch, but Lucas will lay with his head in my lap. Hard not to love a dog who will do that.


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