As I mentioned in another post, I am a semi-retired man who adopted a female husky about 2-1/2 years ago. She turned 3 years old this past September and has been "my girl" since the day I brought her home. She shares the house with an older male lab and a beagle/chow female. Never had too many problems with them all together. Recently Juno (the Sibe) has turned against me. She no longer pays attention to me during the day like she used to. All she does during the day is lay around. Whenever we go outside together it is like it's a major effort for her. We still do our 1-2 mile walks in the evening and she looks forward to those. However, when my wife walks through the door from work (she still works full time) Juno goes crazy. She has become my wife's dog and I have no idea why. Juno will do whatever my wife wants and listens to her every word----just like she used to do for me. It is though she wants all of my wife's attention and I am just a "necessary evil" in her life. Nothing has changed between us that would cause her to just ignore me all of a sudden. On top of this, I am preparing to return to work full time and we are both concerned about what her reaction is going to be when this happens.

Does anybody else have experience dealing with this? Any help or suggestions would be welcomed.

I don't have any good suggestions for you, but I kind of know what you mean.

In our house, I'm home during the day, and when I'm working (I'm on maternity leave right now) I work evenings. During the day, our husky is a couch potato except for when I take him and our lab outside to run around for 30min or so. When my husband gets home from work, he gets very excited, follows my husband from room to room, nudges him, howls, and generally make a fuss. I NEVER get the over-excited greeting that my husband gets. More of him wandering up to me, sniffing, and then going and laying back down.

I liken it to our kids. I'm the 'boring' parent because I'm home all day, and do a majority of the parenting/leadership role. My husband is the 'exciting' parent because the kids don't see him as much, and when they do, he plays with them and is 'more fun.' It's the same with the dogs since I do the obedience training and discipline during the day, and my husband engages in more playful activities with them.

I don't have much advise for you either, but Mya (our almost 6 year old female who has been with us from 8 weeks old) is the same with my husband. She greets him hello when we get home from work and gives him a few kisses in the mornings, but that's about it. When he's off from work and I'm not she sleeps all day. When I'm home and he's working she's constantly begging for my attention. She didn't start behaving this way until she was about 2 years old. Very weird.

Our male is a year and 6 months and LOVES my husband.

I don't understand.

Braiden, my two year old, LOVES my husband. I am retired and stay home. My husband still works. We have had him since he was eight weeks. I feed him, brush him, walk him, bathe him, do poop patrol .... He is affectionate when my husband is at work but the minute H comes home he SMILES, DANCES, acts like a goofy fool over my husband. Lays next to H on the couch, puts his head on his lap. It is really funny to watch. Now Max and Skyla both favor me. It works out well. I am happy that we each have our heart dogs.

Bottom line is not to take anything personally from your dog. They don't have emotions in the same sense that we do. Your dog isn't doing this to spite you and you aren't a "necessary evil" to her.

My dogs definitely greet my husband more enthusiastically than they do me, at least when I was working from home full-time. Now that I'm out of the house more, that's not so much the case.

However, make sure that you are remaining a leader for her. Do you practice NILIF training? Does your wife? Making sure that your dog sees you BOTH as the pack leader can help "level the playing field" between you and your wife when it comes to your dog.

But don't get upset or insulted by your dog's actions. These are things beyond our control and the more you try to control them, the more damage you do to your relationship with your pet.

Thanx everybody. Your responses have been very helpful.