Journey: I never bond with a dog instantly, but I really liked her from the moment I met her. I actually thought her sister, upon first meeting them and hanging out with the three puppies left, might be a better fit for me though. She was just so observant and happy and polite for a puppy, while Journey was bouncing around like a little shark and kind of all over the place haha. Plus, the whole experience of staying at her breeder's house was new and stressful for me anyway, so I wasn't my normal self completely. And I'd still kind of had it in my head that I liked reds better, and being that her sister left was a red tri (and gorgeous at that), I was just really attracted to her. But yes, I did like Journey from the get go. And it didn't take me long, once is was just her and I, to fall in love with her. It feels cheesy to say it, but there's been something really special about her for me since the day I brought her home and realized she was mine. Pretty sure I fell in love with her at the airport, and by the time I got her home, I was so overprotective of her. I still am. I feel that in some ways I'm still getting to know her because she is still just a puppy, but I feel like I've had a strong bond with her since like day 2 of bringing her home. She and I just click. We seem to get eachother. She's my dream dog and everything I could have asked for and more. I had a couple of worried moments when I first got her (she acted like she was terrified of people and all I could think was "omg, not another Dance"), but I think she was just a little stressed from all the change. But despite that, I still adored her and couldn't imagine life without her after just having her a couple of days. I've only ever felt so close to a dog so quickly before just once prior to Journey. I love this dog like no other.
Dance: I liked her immediately and felt bad for her in some ways. I loved her after having her just a few days, but I wasn't in love with her. It took me a little while to feel like we really had a bond of any kind. She's always been a bit aloof/not very cuddly, and sometimes acted like maybe she didn't even like me haha. So I wasn't sure what to do with that. Plus, I still had Tango at the time who was my world. And sometimes Dance got in the way of my relationship with Tango a bit. I remember wondering why I wanted a puppy so badly and there was a moment where I felt a bit of regret, because she wasn't exactly the puppy I'd dreamed of and I knew I could have researched breeders better and didn't notice any red flags until after she was home because I was so enamored with finally getting my Toller puppy. She messed in her crate all the time, she ate poop, she was afraid of people that weren't family, she wasn't as quick to learn as Tango was (learned very quickly to not compare), and like I said, I kind of felt like she didn't like me. But I did love her a lot and would never have dreamed of giving her back, even in that one very short moment of regret. Then I took her on a holiday to visit my grandparents and that one on one time helped a lot, but what really made me bond with and connect with her on a different level was losing Tango suddenly. Dance was 5 months old at the time, and dog-wise, suddenly all I had. After losing Tango, I realized how much I really did love this puppy and needed her, and since then, have been really close to Dance. I can't imagine life without her.
Ripley: There was something I liked about him from the beginning, but I helped care for his litter and he always just followed me around and hung out with me, so I grew attached. I don't think I actually felt a real bond with him until he was about 3 months old and already living with me, but I loved him from a young age. He's gone through phases in life where I've loved him, but didn't actually like him though, as awful as that sounds. He was awful from about 10mths until 18mths old and I'm pretty sure he thought his name was "jerk" or another really awful word. :rofl1: But I've loved him since he was like 6 weeks old, bonded with him around 3 months, and really felt grateful to have him at about 5 months. It's never been the same as my relationship with Dance or Journey, because in many ways he's not what I would look for in a dog, but I adore my sweet, sucky boy nonetheless. It's just different.
Keira: It sounds absolutely awful for me to say this, but I'm pretty sure not only did I not love her very much, but I barely even liked her for her first year of life. She was dreadful. The worst puppy ever, and a terrible fit for my mom, and I resented her a bit. She was so aloof and indifferent. She's the only puppy I've ever been around who wouldn't come running to kissy noises or other ways that people normally get a puppy's attention. She just looked at us with disdain, ran around the house like it was her own personal racetrack, had explosive diarrhea in every dog class ever taken because she'd get herself so worked up with excitement and screaming, wasn't housebroken reliably until she was 10mths old (god forbid she go out in the rain), had zero handler focus despite trying hard, didn't have much toy drive, submissively urinated for me whenever other family members were home (but was fine just her and I), ugh... just a nightmare of a puppy for us. We are not novice dog owners, but she made us feel like failures and complete idiots. Then suddenly around 15mths old or so, she became the dog I'd been trying hard to create, and that's when I started bonding with her more and I realized how much I really did love her when she had to go in for exploratory surgery and I got myself worked up worrying about what if she died on the table or something. She's still not a very good match for my family in a lot of ways, but we've made it work, and we all love her very much and she now equally adores my mom and I. But it's crazy that it took over a year for me to feel much of anything toward her... that's not normal for me at all. I love puppies. But I hope I never have a puppy like Keira again. Thank goodness she grew into the adult that she did. She still has moments that make us not like her/what she does, but I love her and am glad she's ours.