Everything is being taken away from me

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phenomenon
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06 Apr 2007, 7:51 pm

I just adopted a dog, except I'm at school for the next month so the dog will have to live with my mom until I get home (but I'll be taking the dog back to school with me in the fall). We have 4 other dogs, and I'm worried that the puppy (8 or 9 weeks now) will bond with my mom and the other dogs and want nothing to do with me, and maybe like having me around while I'm at school but when I drive home for holidays forget all about me and be happy to be back with its "real" family. Whenever I talk to my mom about this she yells at me that I should have just waited to get a dog (she did not tell me she thought this beforehand, and in fact told me several times that she thought it would be a good idea for me to get a dog and that she would do anything she could to help). I am fully aware of the fact that once I left for college, my little boys were no longer my dogs, and never will be again, and she still f*****g brings it up when we talk about the dogs ("He's my special little boy...especially since you'll have your new dog now, Jack [one of the dogs] is my little baby"). This makes me sick to my stomach that she is basically saying that I am no longer in their lives and that my love for them (and their love for me) is invalid, and when I point this out to her she completely ignores my point. Now she's "claiming" the puppy, insisting that he sleep with her until I come home (I asked that he sleep in my room so he gets used to sleeping there, but she claims that is "cruel"). I have nothing, I am all alone at college, have been miserable here since day 1, I have no social skills so the only club I'm in I'm isolated in, I have no friends, and the only person I've ever felt close to in my life is my mom, and we're just not that close anymore and most likely never will be again, and now she's taking away my dogs, which are the only things I really love in life and the only things I look forward to. I've tried talking to her about it but she never considers things from my side. I know there's nothing more I can really do, I just needed to vent.



computerlove
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06 Apr 2007, 11:32 pm

he'll adapt, don't worry too much about it.

She's not taking away the dogs, you should be happy that she loves the dogs as much as you love them, and from what I read she looks happy to keep care of them now that you'll be gone.
Have you thought about what your mom is feeling? Your mom loves you, and now that you'll be gone, she'll miss you, so much that she will try her best to take care of the dogs as good as you.


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phenomenon
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06 Apr 2007, 11:40 pm

Yeah but she's been trying to "claim" the dogs since we got them, even though they've always been FAMILY dogs and don't belong to ony me or her. I don't think it's a coping mechanism with her getting used to me being gone or anything since she likes to have the house to herself and we don't really understand each other or get along so it's easier when we don't live together. I just wish she would stop taking the boys away from me.

computerlove wrote:
he'll adapt, don't worry too much about it.

She's not taking away the dogs, you should be happy that she loves the dogs as much as you love them, and from what I read she looks happy to keep care of them now that you'll be gone.
Have you thought about what your mom is feeling? Your mom loves you, and now that you'll be gone, she'll miss you, so much that she will try her best to take care of the dogs as good as you.



computerlove
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06 Apr 2007, 11:47 pm

is she AS?


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phenomenon
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07 Apr 2007, 2:12 am

She has SAD and generalized anxiety, and definitely some autistic traits, but she doesn't have AS



Danielismyname
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07 Apr 2007, 9:36 am

Dogs don’t pick subjective favourites, only leaders: he’ll give you the attention and companionship you seek when you feed and lead him. I promise you. If he shows more attention to your mother when you reintroduce yourself…don’t worry, don’t be jealous and don’t hate your mother for it (you can hate her for other reasons, but not this); as you take over the role as pack leader he’ll take to you, the same goes with your other friends.

Jack constantly moves me and my mother around his hierarchy as we’ve each given him varying levels of attention over the years, and I personally wouldn’t wish for it to be any other way.



calandale
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07 Apr 2007, 10:07 am

Danielismyname wrote:
Dogs don’t pick subjective favourites.


Bull. Everyone else deals with my mom's dog in pretty much the
same way, but he is absolutely attached to me. Even if I'm gone
for a year or so, he just falls into line with me. I pretty much ignore
him too.



Danielismyname
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07 Apr 2007, 10:35 am

I take it he'll listen to you over them then? Yes? You're his leader. You've done something with him/her that they haven't.

I could go away from Jack for years, and if mother treated him exactly the same as she does now; when I return I'll still be his leader. They don't forget.

(A small anecdote: I ignored Jack completely for the first five years of his life due to severe OCD, he showed me the typical affection that all dogs show but not obedience. When I overcame my OCD: I read up on many a subject on pack orientated animals, so I could learn to give him something that they supposedly “look for”: a leader if they’re not one. Now, he’ll show a heap of affection to everyone he has known, it’s indistinguishable from what he shows me; but he doesn’t listen to them…. That’s where it counts.)

E: As you said, simply ignoring him is showing that you're the dominate one. :)