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My Parents Had A Dog That Was An Attention Hound
From September, 1969, to January, 1984, my parents owned a cocker spaniel, whose name was Penny. She was a purebred, with papers from major kennels in our area.
Sometime in her second or third year, Penny became an aggressive attention hound. Although she caused no injury to anyone, she often dug up planted flowers, dropped turds in the vegetable garden, destroyed dog toys we gave her, and intruded where she did not need to be . . . when she felt she was not the center of attention. Even when taking a dump, she would turn her head to see if we were watching.
Penny was only content when receiving direct attention. When she felt ignored, she began her destructive behavior. When we introduced a purebred cocker pup into the yard, in the summmer of 1972, Penny would sometimes bully her---but only when attention was divided between the two of them.
Rare to see the personality
Rare to see the personality of an only child in a dog.
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Interestingly, or not (up to you) a lot of dogs try to make eye contact with their owners while taking a dump, I heard it's because that's when they feel most vulnerable and are looking at you for protection or something like that.
Long days and pleasant nights
Diamond
Thank you so much for the
Thank you so much for the comment, and for correcting what is obviously an erroneous impression on my part. My parents were the first to suggest that she was showing off even during those incidents, as our other dogs did not demonstrate that behavior. Thank you for the clarification, and I certainly stand corrected.
Starward