I recently adopted a 7-8 month old dog who was roaming the streets neglected without a chip. He is a bichon mix, could very well not be a mix at all.
He is an amazing boy, to my biggest surprise he is house-trained, walks nicely with low-medium pulling, very friendly with humans and dogs too. I am so lucky with him. Most probably he is not a “true” street dog, could have been out for only a couple of weeks since his overall behavior doesn’t show anxiety or fear at all.
My only issue is that he is super obsessive with affection and it’s driving me slowly crazy. He rarely can be pet normally because he goes into overdrive – licking, pawing, jumping, play bites, not taking no or any boundary setting seriously. I’m trying to reinforce calmness by only petting him when settled but that triggers him again a lot of times. Even when he gets the affection, he seems like wanting more and more intensity. Another thing is that he is trying to hump me any and everytime he can.
Overall he is just so aggressive and forceful with attention and affection. I really want to be close to/with him but I don’t want to positively reinforce this behavior, and at the same time I’m worried if I’m neglecting his emotional needs and causing issues with our forming bond. I feel like this is a self feeding circle, me withdrawing the attention he needs because of his methods – he needs even more after – ramps up his methods.
This whole thing is putting a lot of stress on me since I want him to be fulfilled and feeling safe while me being patient with this phase, but it’s so hard right now.
Please share any inputs if you have been in a similar situation.
submitted by /u/xproII
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