Hey everyone,
I've seen versions of this posted already, but every version I read doesn't quite fit my situation. I've been with my boyfriend for a little over a year, but his family's dog barks incessantly at me when I go over to his family's house and growls whenever I try to pet her. I'm no dog-training expert, but did my general approach of letting the dog sniff my hand when I first met her and petted her when she was done sniffing my hand. It is odd because she lets me pet her, but then will immediately start barking when I stand back up.
During my first few visits, it wasn't something that I was too worried about, but the dog's behavior has gotten progressively worse, not better, like you would expect. When I visited the first few times, I felt like she barked at me in a typical, "I see an intruder" type way, but now, she barks at me viciously. The dog also growls at me when I try to approach her when she is being held by my boyfriend or his mom. Whenever I kiss my boyfriend, she growls and snarls at me. She hasn't bitten me yet, but it seems like she is coming close. The confusing thing is that she does not act this way toward my boyfriend's sister's boyfriend (another SO who came into the picture around the same time). My boyfriend and his family think the whole situation is funny, and chalk it up to the dog being an "asshole". His mom has started putting her in another room when I first come over, but then will let her back out after a few minutes, at which point, she just resumes this behavior.
I feel like this is a problem with my boyfriend and his family's training of the dog, and the fact that it is a Chihuahua that they got from a pet store and then spoiled. I've told my boyfriend that I don't feel comfortable coming over to his house anymore, but I am wondering if this is more of a red flag long-term for if I want to eventually get my own dog with my boyfriend if we live together. I'm worried that the fact that he grew up in a family that did such a bad job training their dog may mean that he won't be a good dog parent to a potential new dog. Is this actually a red flag or am I overreacting?
Tl;dr - My boyfriend's family's dog is poorly behaved, is this a red flag?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/m7jg09/boyfriends_familys_dog_barks_and_growls_at_me/
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