She sees plenty of people, besides this lady and she is the dog’s favorite. Now she is a Golden, and so loves everyone (especially if they feed her) but not like this.
Don’t forget that the pup is still a baby: they don’t really have a proper personality yet. They have some, but it’s not fully formed. You’ve only just met each other, there is no reason yet for him to love you above all other super fun people in the world.
I have a black lab. She does love everyone, but not equally. It just takes time to come to know how she expresses who is special. She has separate barks for “family” and “stranger”. You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but one is slightly higher pitched than the other. You’d only know if you lived with her. For her absolute favourite people in the world (basically family + two friends) she has this silly sound she makes. It’s ridiculous, I think she grunts on the in-breath or something, but it means she really loves you. She knows our names too. You can tell her “where’s papa?” and she’ll find him.
When she first met my SO she immediately liked him, but was furiously jealous. She’d plant herself between us on walks, worm between us on the sofa. Instead of running off to do her thing, she would walk in between us for hours.
There are things she likes, and things she doesn’t like. She hates balloons, she loves balls. She loves snow, she hates rain. She’s terrified of loud bangs, but she loves loud music because it means “party”. She hates the phone, because the person isn’t really there. She is good, but can be naughty if you’re not looking. If you catch her being naughty, she puts herself on the doormat for shame.
Really, just wait for the personality to develop. It is in there, inside the over-excited ball of happiness.
One last thing I find about being worshipped is that, sorry this is really lame, I really do want to live up to her image of me. She makes me want to be a better person. She absolutely 100% trusts me. Nobody but me is allowed to touch her paws. If I tell her to sit and stay she will wait for me. Not because she’s stupid, but because she trusts I will come back for her. That trust is something I have to live up to. To her I am the be-all-and-end-all, I am magic, I am the strongest, cleverest person in the world. But mostly I am the kindest, the one to go to if you’re hurt or need protection. I never want to let her down.
Most everything’s been covered already. A few touched on the security, and for me that’s one of the big differences (dog vs cat).
Ever wake up suddenly from a dream, wondering if that noise was real or part of the dream? With three dogs wandering the house at night, I never need to get up and check. If they’re still asleep, it was a dream. Sometimes warnings are “false positives”, but there is no conceivable way a ne’er-do-well could arrive at any part of my dwelling without ample notice.
Their presence helps me sleep soundly.
I am dog sitting a Pom for a couple of weeks and he is the most loving, adorable softy I have ever come across. He adores everyone. Does 30 laps of the coffee table if I come out of the shower. I just had to post because I think I’m in love.
Not only that, but I can tell from the bark if it’s family coming in late, or ‘stranger danger’. She’ll start if she hears one of the cars she knows, even before we can hear a car at all.
As a cat person I appreciate this thread as I have learned stuff about why people like dogs. I think Helene330 nailed it that dogs fill needs some of us don’t have. I also don’t get whoever it was who said dogs are better because no litter box. Huh? I would much rather scoop up clumps of litter than warm steaming poo. Or do you just not clean up after your dog?
On the other hand watching a dog ride in a car (ride! Go for ride! Ride!) is totally wonderful.
I can always work on being a better person. This is a useful approach. Thank you.
If the dog is an outside dog with a big yard, that may not be required. My dog, for the most part, does not like to go where she plays, so she tends to use as a bathroom the hedges and “no man’s land” covered by bushes and vegetation that nobody ever steps in (or can even get in). I’m not cleaning where nobody goes. If she does it somewhere else, I do clean it up. But that does not happen very frequently.
Also, you do not have to pay continuously to get cat litter. You can use something else to pick up the stuff, including reusing bags or cardboard boxes/lids.
My 15lb dog would leap into battle against a lion to save me. Very few other animals are capable of that kind of bond with a human.
I’m a cat person, through and through. I’ve only ever owned cats, save for a disastrous three months when I was nine, and we talked my parents into taking in a badly behaved stray Lhaso Apso. Cats are simple and affectionate without being needy, and they fit my lifestyle quite nicely. But, you can’t really train a cat, and that is a MAJOR downfall as a pet.
They track litter out of the box - no solution to that, except purchasing a quality vacuum (which I have). They will walk on any surface with their dirty feet, and even if you employ a spray bottle to chase them off, you know their just waiting until you leave to do what they want. They sleep all the time. Dogs, on the other hand, with a little work, will be what you need them to be. And, much as love might seem to be bread into them, isn’t it kind of neat that dogs and humans have formed this DNA deep symbiosis with one another?
But maybe you’re just not a dog person. That’s fine. I’m the same - much as I might like dogs in theory, when it comes to reality, dogs just don’t seem to smell right to me, and we rarely bond. Maybe it’s like that with you. Let little black lab be your wife and kids’ pet. They can take care of him and they can love him, and you can sit back and tolerate him.
Thank you for not laughing at how lame it is 
I actually do think that if everyone lived up to what their dog thought of them the world would be a better place. We would all be gentle heroes!
Dogs have personalities, just like humans. Labs are like those people who luv everyone at first sight, want hugs from everyone they meet and who just can’t understand why everyone is wasting time at work when it’s a beautiful day outside. Mix that with a serious ADHD problem and I can see why some people wouldn’t like a lab. That doesn’t mean you don’t like dogs in general.
I’ve lived with quite a few dogs and cats over the years. They’ve all had different – sometimes wildly different – personalities and roles in the household. I agree each animal must be evaluated on his or her own terms.
But the thing about dogs is that, while both dogs and cats have distinct personalities, you (the human) have (some) input into your dog’s personality and behavior. With a cat, you get the floor model; a dog’s relationship with the human pack is a collaborative thing you’ve both made together.
When I was a child, I mostly had cats, although my brother adopted a quaking, miserable wreck of a German Shepherd mix from the city pound. Once she was in a stable family environment, she turned into an awesome protector/nurturer for three human children and two adopted kittens. What was said above about having a guarding breed as a family dog (as distinct from one kept only for protection and not socialized) is true.
Some of the cats I’ve known I quite liked, and one I really loved. We’ve had brilliant and dumb cats, demanding and compliant ones.
Right now we have two dogs and a cat in the family. All are adopted/rescued.
The cat is a black-and-white tuxedo shorthair. We brought him inside when his previous caretaker moved out and left him on the sidewalk in ten-degree weather.
The dogs are pit bulls (well, one is a pit bull mix). They were each terribly underweight and neglected when rescued.
Which of these animals has bitten several people, wrecked the house, and terrorized the other animals?
Hint: Not the starving pit bulls.
The adorable-looking cat is a swaggering, savage and intemperate monster, with a record of biting and clawing with little warning, although he’s been slowly starting to forgive/tolerate us over the last four years. The dogs are scared of him.
Sadie, the pit bull / hound mix, is the anchor at the center of family life. We sometimes call her “the mayor” for the way she has to meet every neighbor while patrolling the neighborhood. She’s curious about small animals without being predatory toward them; her wonder at finding a box turtle is endearing. She’s getting on in years now, but still playful, and she is content to quietly lean on you if you’re not in play mode. When she first came to us, she’d just been treated for fleas; as soon as we had her in the house, I asked her to lie down and roll over so I could inspect her belly line for fleas. To this day, although she loves my wife utterly, she rolls over to greet me and shows me her belly. I think it’s because she remembers that after passing that first inspection, she “got to stay” and be part of the family.
Simone, the American Pit Bull Terrier, is all about the love. She was my “project” when we took her in at six months; she was totally uneducated and had no idea how to behave (I think she’d been raised in isolation from humans and dogs). Because she was semi-feral, I used patience in working with her; because she ignored food rewards and didn’t understand body language very well, I used gentle touch as a reward.
She’s clearly “my dog” now, in that she will follow me around; if I’m in the bird room with the parrots, a lot of the times I come out, Simone is lying in front of the door waiting for me, even when my wife is home and there’s other activity going on. But Simone loves more than just her guy – and she’s touch-oriened. She wants to climb into the arms of any human being who bends down to her; she likes to make physical contact with anyone walking her, a potential trip hazard; I call her the “calf inspector” for her habit of frequently brushing people’s calves with her nose; and she likes physical contact with other dogs.
One time, we were staying with a group (and the dogs) at a beach house; some non-dog-person got up early and left the door wide open. Fortunately I got up early too and saw it. I went flying out the door looking for Simone; the previous night she’d been so excited to run on the beach (on-leash) she’d run me to exhaustion. I thought she might be miles away by now – but a few hundred feet down the beach, she’d found a woman laying out in the early sun, and stopped to try and “help” her.
She’s grown into a nurturer. I take her on several charity/awareness dog walks each year – she thrives on crowd energy – and although she tries to “come in first,” charging ahead of the pack, when other dogs lag behind or grumble, Simone doubles back and begins licking them to encourage them. Whenever Sadie is hurt (or even just getting a bath), Simone will furiously lick her.
And what was said above about different barks is very true. Cats make different noises as well; but a cat’s noise is generally communicating his or her wants to you so you can fill them. A dog often tells you things the dog thinks you should know for your own sake (or because the Pack Authority needs to know this important thing!).
When the foxes scream in the woods behind our place, they sound disturbingly like children being murdered. Every time, Simone barks an alarm bark and turns to make sure we heard. (“Yes, Simone, everyone in the neighborhood heard.”)
One night, when I was walking the dogs, while we were standing around smelling something, Sadie hip-checked me and uttered a quiet, breathy “chuff.” I turned to look where she was staring – a stranger was silently observing us from behind. Totally harmless, I think; but Sadie thought The Boss should know.
One time Sadie did go to war against a human. Some young guy was running on the path in winter; his face was covered against the cold. When he suddenly appeared around a corner, face unreadable, and ran straight at my wife, Sadie instantly stepped in front of her and gave voice to a terrible, throaty, ripping roar of barking. It sounded like a cross between a big dog, a lion, and denim being torn. I think that kid may still be running.
And the premiere example of different sounds for different messages… one day while we were preparing to go to a party, the dogs began to make a commotion. This wasn’t the “Oh boy, oh boy, someone’s at the door! Open the door so we can get loved!” excitement they usually express, either; this was an entirely different sound, the dog version of “Humans! Something Is SERIOUSLY WRONG!”
Directly outside our door, there were several loud bangs and the sound of something breaking, and a woman’s voice screamed “SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!”
The dogs went NUTS in a frenzy of alarm barking, looking back to make sure we heard and were coming. Turned out the neighbor across the hall (whom the dogs know and adore) had a fire in her kitchen, and had cut her hands trying to smash open the fire extinguisher in the hallway. There was blood and broken pieces of plastic all over the place, and a fire springing up inside her condo (which was extinguished thusly, if you care to read the whole story).
You’re both close, but here’s what cats really think:
They regard you the same way a lion regards and elephant. You are an animal that is too big for them to hunt and kill. That’s it. They don’t care about you at all.
If you suddenly became six inches tall your cat would torture you and then kill you. Your dog would still sit if you told him to.
I don’t care much for dogs (there are some that I can deal with better than others). They’re too high-maintenance, loud, and messy. To each their own, though 
Oh, cool. I’m so glad that a dog person chimed in with this useful advice.
While I like dogs (as well as cats) and have always owned at least one for the last 2/3 of my life, I can’t help you with this because I feel basically the same way - I’m just not crazy about labs or other goofy, lovable dog breeds/mixes. The dogs I like are those often described as ‘catlike’, in that they don’t give a shit about most people and like plenty of personal space. Or guarding breeds, who think anyone they don’t know well is probably a danger to their family. Dogs who are ‘difficult to train’ (because they don’t care what you think) are right up my alley. Anyway. I guess I like a nice big streak of bad attitude in all my pets. It matches mine.
The OP should definitely avoid having children.
I mean, it’s programmed into them to love their parents, and that affection often survives even blatant abuse.
Needy little turds. 
Eh, our two dogs do require more daily maintenance and attention than our cat. But the dogs are willing to wait for it – the cat has to have everything RIGHT NOW OR THE FURNITURE DIES! He’s literally peed on the floor in anger because I was taking too long getting my coat off after coming inside. He yowls urgently whenever it occurs to him he’d like something, and he will start to claw up the furniture if you disrespect the yowl.
The dogs are much more patient, and do not escalate to willfully inflicting harm if momentarily denied something.
I detect a hint of intentional hyperbole in your post. Nevertheless you hit very close to the mark. I’m not mean or neglectul to my kids, but most of the time I’m not particularly warm either–same sorts of things that make me not ‘get’ dogs. Whole 'nother Oprah there, but the very first line in the OP is much more than an intro. But I don’t typically pee on things when I get impatient. 