Here’s a couple of pics of the statue in his honour which I took while visiting Shibuya a couple of years ago;
My older red (aussie) girl is “Velcro” to an extreme. Her nickname is Barnacle. I am her god, my husband is one of the lesser minions. This dog has to be locked out of the bathroom when I take my shower otherwise I end up with a wet dog staring up at me while I rinse the shampoo from my hair. The biggest problem we have with this is that Dingo has to be watched like a hawk with people around and now we’ve resorted to kenneling her when we have guests because if someone walks towards me she is likely to bite them. To be honest she is very annoying at times but it a small price to pay for unconditional love.
Forgot to add and ran out of time to edit…
My husband and I have an ongoing conversation about what would happen if we had kids. Either Dingo would love the baby because it was birthed by her god or I would get to use the phrase “Dingo ate my baby” and mean it.
Barrels: I’m not looking to rain on your parade, but if your dog is likely to bite someone who comes near you, you are not loved, you are owned, and you are not owned by a dog that looks up to you as its leader, you are owned by a dog that that thinks it leads and and therefore owns you. That’s just basic dog psychology there. No dog that genuinely viewed you as its leader would dare insert itself unasked between you and anything you welcomed, whether it was a hug or a bowl of popcorn. That he thinks he has the right to impose himself between you and someone who is your friend says very bad things. And does NOT bode well for you having children!
I strongly urge you to seek professional help in straightening out these relationships, because the longer she goes on acting this way (kenneling doesn’t change how she thinks about it, it just controls her actions) the more entrenched and severe it will become.
Yeah, I have to admit I was more than a little disturbed by that too. If the owner is truly alpha, then she should be able to correct aggressive behavior like that. If kenneling is the only “solution,” then Houston, we have have a problem.
I have two Boston terrorists. The one I raised from puppyhood is a velcro girl and does not leave my side. She likes other people petting her and such, but when I leave her at a friend’s house to travel, they say she just lays on her bed in the sunbeam and acts “depressed.” When I go over there to pick her up, she becomes her typical spring-loaded self again. She’s perfectly friendly toward other humans but I am her human. She also gets a little jealous when I pet the other dog or the cat.
The other BT was rescued from being a stud dog at a puppy mill. If he loses track of where I am – say I go outside to work in the yard – he will sit in the window and howl, which sounds like he’s choking on broken glass. (It’s funny.) Once I was getting ready to go out to dinner and left the dogs downstairs while I went upstairs to shower. When I got out of the shower, I heard the most awful racket. Rescue Dog started howling because he thought I’d left him and he couldn’t find me and that got Spring-Loaded Dog going… The sang a duet with me giggling at the top of the stairs, listening to them. Finally I said, “RESCUE DOG! I’m right here.”
He stopped mid-howl, “OwwwwooOO-- oh. Sorry. Thought you left.”
Yes, he has some separation anxiety issues but he does not howl nearly as much as he used to.
I’ve been fortunate to have had several dogs in my life and they all taught me something. The current beastie is a St. Bernard mix. The previous two were lab mixes and the one before that was a Mal-mutt. All were rescues.
My female Lab mix was completely devoted to me, but not in an annoying velcro way. She wanted to know where I was, and would howl if I left the house sometimes. However, she would eat at the kennel and interact with strangers in a friendly way.
The male Lab could be bought for a biscuit.
The Mal-mutt was devoted – no, obsessed – with my father. We were all lesser lights compared to HIM. When my father went to the hospital once, the dog was inconsolable. We had to take her in the car to the hospital and park near the exit so he could go out visit. She wouldn’t eat and paced the whole week. It was miserable to watch.
The Saint I’ve only had a couple of months so it’s hard to say how “loyal” he will be. I do know he absolutely loves the warm bed(s) I provide and good food I put out, which is a far cry from the neglect he knew before.
That’s interesting. My family had a shih tzu when I was young, and she was beyond loyal to our family - she was loyal almost exclusively to my mother. I really think she would have been a Greyfriars Bobby type, pining away until she died, if my mother had died or something.
My mother was co-dependent, too, which made it worse (I think she wanted a second child but couldn’t have one, so the dog filled a gap). But while it sounds nice to have a dog that simply adores you and no one else in the world, it’s pretty stressful. Mum couldn’t leave her to go on holidays, and worried a bit about what would happen if she had to go into hospital. (She had health problems and was at home much of the time, hence the dog bonding to her.)
Anyway, er, the point of that was just to say that I thought shih tzus were considered high on the loyalty scale! Guess we just got the neurotic one. Or maybe you got an unusually social one.
Careful - “very loyal breed” can be shorthand for “aggressive to strangers/possesive of human” from a breeder trying to put a good spin on their breed.
I had a dog, a pavement special from the shelter part collie-lab-chow-I don’t know what, but he became my shadow. If I got up to walk across a room even he’d be watching in case maybe I was leaving the room, which would naturally mean he had to follow.
I had him for about 4 years before circumstances led to me emigrating and I had to leave him. Fortunately my parents were happy to adopt him. Apparently for the first three weeks after I left he would only leave the front-door for food and toilet business… eventually he accepted I wasn’t coming back and became my father’s new shadow. It still tears me up to think of him just lying and waiting for me 
Yeah, this reminds me of all those owners on Dog Whisperer or It’s Me or the Dog who say “But Puppykins wuvs and needs me” but seem oblivious to the fact that if the dog really respected them, they wouldn’t be pushing boundaries (biting, etc.). And of course, it’s a happy dog who knows his place (which should be at the bottom of the hierarchy).
My uncle, a retired veterinarian, writes books about dogs for Barron’s Publishing. He describes dogs on a “loyalty” scale that has utterly independent on one end and slavishly devoted on the other. In that context, loyalty means devotion to and dependence upon a person or family (the dog’s “pack”). This is important because it gives one a clue about the dog’s obedience of your commands and summonses, which can affect the dog’s and your safety. In this case, the opposite of “loyal” isn’t “disloyal”, but “independent”.
What most people don’t realize is that it’s very stressful to lead the pack and dogs don’t like it - they just do it because somebody has to!
Very interesting question- here’s how I describe loyalty by example.
I had to rehome my first Shar-pei after a divorce. I was completely heartbroken over it, but when the people who adopted him drove away with him in their car, he never looked back and was just as happy to be with them as he had been with me. He was like “meh, whatever. I hope they have food.” He was always glad to see me, but was just as glad to see anyone else and just sort of like “huh…don’t really care. Is someone feeding me?”
My terrier that I adopted (Foster), is the polar opposite. He is near me at all times. He wants to snuggle constantly, he misses me when I’m away, and sometimes when I get home from work he’s so excited that he just yipes out loud. I really don’t know if he would live if I were to disappear off the earth. He’s happy with my husband, but when I’m gone he simply waits and waits for me to return. To me, that’s a loyal dog. There for you, by your side in good and bad.
This kinda says it all…
If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can get going without pep pills,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time.
If you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can ignore a friend’s limited education and never correct him,
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than an poor friend,
If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
If you can say honestly that deep in your heart you have no
prejudice against creed, color, religion or politics,
THEN, my friend, you are almost as good as your dog
We have two german shepherds. The one who is my husband’s will sit by the bathroom door when he’s in there, then come over to me and whine about him not being there. He’s done this since the first day we brought him home, before we even intended to keep him (my husband drove him home and there was something of an instant bond).
The one who is mine… when I have her in the car and have to get out for some reason, will watch VERY INTENTLY the whole time I am gone. Once when I had a flat tire she managed to seriously creep out the roadside assistance guy. She’s never aggressive to people, but it’s a very intense stare. When I go on vacation, she spends most of her time sleeping by the front door, lying across the threshold. She eats, but insists on staying by the door unless you drag her away. When my dad took care of her while I was gone for a weekend, he said that she would just lie there all day, and when he’d say to her “Wanna go for a walk? Come on, let’s go for a walk!” she’d just raise her head off the floor, look at him, sigh, and put her head back down.
When my ex husband and I were still together he worked out of town many weeks and I worked mornings. My dalmatian would sit at the door from the time I left until I got home, whining and whining until he was hoarse. My next door neighbor would walk her two dogs around 10 and hear him crying as they went by, so sometimes she’d come up and sit on my porch and talk to him through the door. It didn’t do any good. He’s much better now that he knows I’ll always come home, but if I’m half an hour late he’ll freak out, especially if it’s stormy out.
I know a girl who, after a breakup, moved half a state away. Her dog ran away a week after arriving at their new home, and she was devastated to have lost her girlfriend and her dog at the same time. She got a phone call from her ex a week later… the dog had turned up at her old house, a couple hundred miles away! Her ex didn’t even know the dog was missing, but I guess she was the favorite.
As a kid I knew some people that had a wire haired terrier. We’d get to wrestling around and throwing each other in the lake and stuff and the dog would “attack” (bark at and lightly nip) whoever was getting the worst of it or appeared to be losing. Didn’t matter who, the dog was going to be on the winning side.
Just to clarify for everyone who thinks I am “one of those people”. I am very strong in the alpha roll in our house/pack. I understand how doggy brains work and I get it. I work with a professional trainer who is also the head of the rescue group I foster for, in our state. I am foster home for ARPH (Aussie Rescue) and have had over 20 foster dogs in the last 2.5 years. I often have some of the more difficult dogs to manage in my house because I am very strong on “you have to earn it” method of training.
Dingo is a special case and not what you would call a normal dog, Dingo is an extreme dog. She understands that I am in charge and does not question it, however she has an almost split personality when it comes to strangers. She will love on them and be happy to see them when we are off the property. She is also happy to have people around in the house as long as they aren’t moving around. If she starts to act in the wrong way I can tell her to knock it off and she will quit. She is now 9 years old and is starting to loose her sight, which doesn’t help the situation. As a smart and responsible dog owner I choose to keep my dog safe and visitors safe by kenneling her while vistors are around.
It’s easy to “diagnose” someone else’s problems over the internet, but it’s hard to do it correctly.
To be fair, you did say this as well, making it sound like you enjoy having a dog like this. But it doesn’t sound like unconditional love to me. More like she sets the rules and you guys acquiesce.