When we adopted Orbit, our Boston Terrier, he had issues. He was about 7 months old and had gone from his dog family to a man in a wheelchair who couldn't train a high energy puppy. And it certainly wasn't the job of his health aide to take on the role of dog trainer!
Orbit, his name at the time was Bits...we didn't like it but wanted to keep it similar...Orbit was in the early stages of development when he needs to learn biting habits. When you live with a person who has no feeling in his feet, you don't learn what's too much! OUCH!
It was a lot of crying and frustration on my part, but the biting issue was resolved. Though it was the last of his bad habits to be broken (I've given up on the barking ever ending) I am happy to say you can put your hand in his face without getting a finger bitten off!
But even with his training and becoming only 25% jerk now, I knew I needed another pug in my life and he was gonna have to be okay with it.
So our little Freyja joined us just about a year after we got Orbit. And Orbit was not okay with it. But he was learning to be a good dog and adjusted as best he could.
It's possible he put up with her because what could he do!? She followed him everywhere and sniffed everything he did and peed on everything he did...she LOVES him.
He TOLERATES her.
For the first year or so, he would bark and grumble and run off any time she got within 3 or 4 feet of him.
Slowly he gave in. And Freyja would push boundaries until eventually she got him to let her be close.
Moments like these still don't happen often...
and I think she knows they are special moments for her!
And he his acceptance is most certainly based on his level of fatigue. Sometimes he just doesn't have it in him to fight it. Sometimes he just needs to sleep, despite how close she may be.
But sometimes I think he likes knowing she is there for him, too.