Respecting crap aside, though, Abby really is my little velcro dog. When I wasn't home, she was listening perfectly to my mom and was completely obedient for her. As soon as I started living at home again, my mom would give her a command, and Abby would come over to my side and look at me like "do I really have to listen to her?" She also started resource guarding me, which seemed cute at first, but quickly progressed to annoying and even dangerous. If my mom gave me a hug, Abby would be out of her bed instantly and in between us, licking my face frantically. If I was sitting next to my sister at the computer, Abby was all of a sudden shoving herself in between us and putting her paws in my lap. If my mom wanted to come in to say goodnight, I'd have to repeat 'stay' to Abby every few seconds so that my mom could give me a hug - and the whole time Abby would have a hard look in her eyes and wouldn't take her eyes off my mom. The resource guarding of me is a big problem - Abby guards me from other dogs and from my roommates. She has been getting slightly better - I can pet other dogs without her leaping and biting the tops of their necks repeatedly. Nobody comes in my room in the evening though, and I don't blame them!
It was during this time that Abby fell in love! When I first got her, she played with about 50% of the dogs she met, and by January it was down to about 2%. When we were at the park, all she wanted to do was play fetch, which was fine by me - teeth around a ball mean no teeth around anything else! But Abby and my friend's dog, Tycho, can't get enough of each other. They play non stop, for hours on end, even through the night as we found out when we went on a weekend Agility trip.
Playing all night in Agassiz:
On the way home from a trial:
Sharing a stick on Cypress:
