We adopted our JRT mix a bit over a week ago now. She's a year and a half and a big bundle of energy! She was found as a stray after having been hit by a car and was with her foster home for about 6 months. Before that, they don't believe she was owned by anyone but no one can be sure.
Ellie is definitely on the go all the time. She's very sweet, but rarely sits still and is always playing or running around. These behaviors are fine, and expected with a JRT. However, I've noticed that the only time she sits still outside of sleeping is when I'm sad or anxious.
Our other dog is going through some health issues and we believe she's approaching the end (she was doing very well on her meds until the last few days so we had no reason to believe thay when we adopted Ellie). This is obviously really sad for us and I've been crying a lot the last few days. I've also had a lot of stuff going on with my job that's been incredibly stressful and makes me really anxious as of late.
I noticed that when I was feeling particularly anxious, Ellie would come over to me and sort of drape herself across me and just sit. It was actually pretty calming, and it was the only time she was ever just being still. I thought it was odd, but also brushed it off a bit and thought maybe I only noticed her doing it when I was anxious.
However, the last few days when I've been crying a lot, she's noticed almost immediately, and she'll come over and sniff my eyes and then out her face as close to mine as possible so our cheeks are touching. She'll sit like that for a bit before draping herself over me. This morning I was laying in bed and crying and she draped herself calmly and gently over my chest, which was very comforting.
I spoke with her foster mom before adopting her and she mentioned she hadn't trained Ellie at all except to not pee in the house (I asked her if she had been trained to sit, do tricks, etc) so I don't think she learned that behavior there.
Anyway, long story longer, I think Ellie wants to naturally calm me down and by encouraging it when she does it, she's now learned that it's a good behavior (it is!) and I've accidentally made her into my support dog lol
TL;DR My dog lays on me calmly when I'm sad/anxious until I calm down/stop crying and no one trained her to do it.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/mgduer/my_jack_rusell_rescue_is_accidentally_becoming_a/
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