# Sudden drop off in affection.



## redddog (May 9, 2009)

Hey guys. We have a 16 week old female (Callie)who all of a sudden seems to have had a sudden drop off of affection for us. 

We were at our family's lake house and my brother was there with Callie's brother, Scout. Callie spent a week with my brother (and Scout)when she first was taken from the breeder and she seems to have more affection for him than us. But she seems to like just about everyone else better.

She's nowhere near as affectionate as Scout. 

What's the deal? It kinda sucks to see Scout and my brother (and their whole family) have this awesome bond and then watch Callie totally blow us off. 

Any ideas? She's as indifferent as a cat.


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## BeauShel (May 20, 2007)

bumping up


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## Heidi36oh (Feb 27, 2007)

Boys are much more loving then females, my girls get their loving on their term, as the boys are constantly looking for loving!


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## Jo Ellen (Feb 25, 2007)

I've read that female goldens aren't high on showing affection, not as much as males. That certainly is the case with my girl, Daisy. She gets really excited about other people though, and she'll kiss my son but she NEVER kisses me :

I think you have to look for the affection in other ways. Like with Daisy, the minute I leave the house, she heads upstairs to my bed. She won't sleep in my bed when I'm in it but as soon as I leave, she's there! And this is true whether I'm gone for 10 minutes or 8 hours. 

It's not that your girl likes other peoplee better, it's just different.


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## catlikethief (May 5, 2009)

I'm interested to hear every ones thoughts on this. I have a female 18wk puppy and we started going through the same thing around 14wks when our breeder and son came to visit her at our house. The son I believe is about 10 yrs old and our puppy was so excited to see him again. 

I noticed almost instantly she seemed off after they left and as the days went on she stopped licking us when greeting us and didn't want much attention from the kids, she pretty much moped for a week. I gave her some space and let her come back around to me when she was ready. It sure sucked waiting though. 

We took her to the beach for the first time this week and she's kinda snapped out of it and is almost her happy self again. 

Whatever her funk is I hope your Callie is out of it soon.


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## Romeo1 (Apr 19, 2008)

Heidi36oh said:


> Boys are much more loving then females, my girls get their loving on their term, as the boys are constantly looking for loving!


Yep, most definitely.


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## mainegirl (May 2, 2005)

It's the boy, girl thing. My moose would get close enough to crawl into your skin, he's always watching you with those brown eyes. Angel will be loving on her terms, when she wants it, and she goes NUTS over visitors and kids. she lets my grandson crawl all over her and gives him kisses, but i guess she takes her "mom" for granted.

beth, moose and angel


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

Part of it is a normal pulling away stage of independence....combined with the individual dogs personality. 
You can increase your value and attractiveness with training...a fun, positive based, beginners agility class, tricks class and/or obedience class can do wonders to keep and improve the bond. When the dog starts to see you as her 'fun buddy' she will start to look toward you for more interaction.


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## momtoMax (Apr 21, 2009)

I read that boy dogs are more loving too - Willow is chow and lab and she will follow me from room to room but isn't a huge cuddler. When she wants love she'll push her head into me or roll over and look at me expectantly. If I call her, she'll tolerate the petting but doesn't seem to enjoy it like she does when she's in the mood. Max is a puppy so maybe being more affectionate comes with the territory of having a baby - but he is all love and hugs. I hope he stays that way!!


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## Doodle (Apr 6, 2009)

Generally speaking, it's true that males are more affectionate and females are more aloof, but I can tell you that I have a 15 month old male who behaves in a similar way to your pup. And there was a new memeber who posted here last week with the same concerns with his male. My Brady has a wonderful personality, he is very obedient and well-behaved (for an adolescent) and he is affectionate to everyone including my DH and myself in that he will give us kisses, he loves to be with us (follows us everywhere so that he's always in the same room), always looking to play with us (and we do make a point to be his play buddies too, not just his trainers and disciplinarians). HOWEVER, when we have visitors, they become the main event and DH and I become chopped liver (ho-hum I see you all the time so you're no big deal kind of attitude). Also, one thing that has always bothered me a bit is that if we have visitors that sit on our couch, Brady willingly jumps up and cuddles with them. He ALMOST NEVER does this with me or DH. And I'm saying to myself, what's up with that? We're supposed to be the ones he's closest to, and yet he snuggles with everyone but us? If you read the thread by the other new member last week (I think it was titled something like "can you encourage a dog to cuddle" or something close to that), there was some excellent advice given on things you can do to increase this bond so that your pup will hopefully become more affectionate towards you and your family. Like LibertyME said here, it was also mentioned there that age and testing their independence can definitely be a factor.


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## slip_kid (May 12, 2009)

i may be that new member doodle was talking about. our pup is 11.5 weeks now and is sorta a loner. last night when i got home i let him out and worked my rear end off for two hours to entertain him, from soccer sessions with a basketball getting him to chase it OCCASIONALLY. to runs around the outside of the house, playing with stuffed toys to get his interest... last night wife and i sat on the floor together and in high pitched voices kept callling for COMET and laughing and giggling like idiots. He'd get up from whatever he was doing, come up, lick our faces for a bit then go away to lay down again.

put a 2 yr old in front of him and it's a different dog, chasing after them and boucing around... and my mother in law, he jumps in her lap. but we figure it's her complete lack of interest in doing anything "pack leader like" and letting him do/chew whatever that makes him all giddy around her. that will be a dif story when in a few months he'll be half her weight and tearing her arms off on a leash.


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## Pez (Jun 9, 2009)

I have females and they are very loving and attached to all of us. I have heard this before but never experienced it.


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## NuttinButGoldens (Jan 10, 2009)

The only Female I had, Nikita, was like this. But when she was in the mood for luvin', you couldn't ignore her 

And she LOVED to dance. She had trained herself (I had nothing to do with it) to fold her paws back so only the tops of them touched you when she jumped up to dance with you. I can't recall anything else that ever made her happier than dancing.

And she was born leash trained. She healed perfectly, stopped and sat perfectly, stayed perfectly, and was just a pleasure to take on a walk. I never taught her a thing. She was 8 weeks old when I got her.

And she was a Pet Shop dog...


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