All of ours always have.

The Doberman/german shorthair that I saved from the kill shelter on Ft Bragg at a couple weeks old (after being abandoned at the commissary), converted to my wife while I was deployed. The little *hit was bottle-fed by me and was my best friend through multiple, TDY's and a deployment before. He only knew her for a few weeks before I flew out, but when I got back he had definitely become her dog. Until the day he died, he liked me, he obeyed me, he respected me, but he LOVED her.

I've had 2 malinois', both would mostly only listen to and behave for me. They loved the family, and would protect everyone, but they clearly favored me.

It's interesting how dogs do that.

Of course … all GSDs; “racist” as shit re: sketchy folk, but loyal, lovable creatures of G*d. Such beautiful, powerful and smart dogs. I have mine, wife has hers and grandma has ‘em all!

Our one year old Cavalier clearly prefers my wife. She feeds him, if we're both watching the same TV show, he's on her lap and he dotes on her. He likes me too, and likes to snuggle with me and play fetch and chase, but given a choice it's Mommy.

3 indoor cats,

hers is a male, that avoids me
mine is a female that likes us both, but hangs with the wife
and ours is a small fat black cat (female) that ignores us both but follows the wife around most of the time,

wife comes home, and they all show up to be fed
I come home and they rarely care,



when we got married, we had a Ferret, that had free reign of the house,

when the wife got home, he completely ignored her, when I got home all I had to do was say his name and he was at my feet,

My wife works from home on her own schedule, so all of our dogs have bonded way better with her.

Except for my youngest, his one true love is his frisbee. If you are the one throwing the frisbee, you are his favorite person.

Oh yeah, absolutely. My GSD sticks to me like glue. I'm not the one who feeds him all the time (he's not really food driven) but I am the one who takes him out on walks and hikes nearly every single day. I can't go to the bathroom without him laying against the door, and moaning until I come out. The rest of my family is a little jealous.

Oddly we picked out two cats at the pound. The one I picked prefers me, the one she picked prefers her. The one that prefers her though won't let her rub his belly, but comes to me immediately when I get home or get out of the shower in the morning for his belly rubs.

Moses the Cat was a feral for the first few months of his life. He was not socialized as a kitten and as a result is not a lap cat. He can be handled and petted but is not cuddly at all. Whats weird is the fact that as soon as I begin any kind of task or project he is right there to inspect it and assist. A high point of his day is me sitting at the kitchen table opening mail. He is apparently expecting something. I think bonding occurs with the person who interact with the pet the most during its early life. Maybe?

Yup. Three male indoor cats. One of them tolerates me. Occasionally asks me for attention. But mainly just tolerates me. The other two give me plenty of attention, but they'll sit only in my wife's lap.

Then again: 99 times out of a 100: She's the one that feeds them. She's the one that brushes them and trims their claws. She's the one who fusses over them if she thinks something's amiss. All I do is clean the litter box and occasionally play with them a bit.

Now, the last female we had, the one I picked out, was crazy in love with me and all but ignored my wife.

2 cats, 1 Dog. Dog wants to be where I am, but can be manipulated with people food. When we recently put down new flooring on the stairs to the second floor where we sleep (used to be carpet) Rosie had a hell of a time on the stairs, actually careened down them a couple times, it was mainly my wife that helped her learn how to go down them, she's got it down now.

Winchester, my grey cat is totally mine, but he does love my wife. Remington is our male tiger striped cat that is my daughter's buddy, if I wonder where he is, it's usually on the 3rd floor in her bed.

Of our current four dogs, one definitely favors her, two slightly favor her and one definitely favors me. Most of our previous dogs favored her, but she's around them significantly more than I.

The cats favor her, but that makes sense as she does more with them.

I'm perfectly OK with them favoring her incase the SHTF, I would much rather have them stick with her, as that's a big part of the reason we have them.

Roxy prefers Tabitha, but if she is frightened calls me by name to come get her.

SC's LSC Cockatoo, Abbey Noodle thinks I'm the greatest thing since sunflower seeds.

We work for a rescue and have 5 off our own. All of them have their preferred person, and the foster that come in and out tend to warm up to one of us in particular. And it’s rarely consistent. Keeps things interesting!

Funny, but with us, the female always gravitated to my husband, and males to me. But they all obeyed me or him no matter what. I always got a kick out of it, the female would be at his feet, or next to him, and my male would be snuggled up to me. But woe to anybody who tried to mess with me, they’d have two snarling protectors gunning for them.
Like now, our female absolutely adores my husband. Always cuddles him, so happy to be with him. Goes to bed with him when he turns in earlier than me. She does love me though, and is protective. She waits by the door if one of us leaves for that person to come back. Wants the family all together. I’m perfectly fine with it, as I do make sure she listens to me too.

SC got a new cockatoo that was given up and he don't like ANYBODY but Tabitha. He lights up whenever she enters the room and lets her pet him. We all think that I will wind up with the bird and he will be Tabitha's companion now.

Every dog in my family has gravitated towards my father. He does everything they want to do, when they want to do it. Never yells at them or gives them any commands. He just goes with the flow and the dogs dictate what they do next. That's love, not respect and in the dogs' mind they're the alpha.

I on the other hand have the respect of my dogs. I love them and they love me but while they love my Dad more, they WILL listen and obey me when I give a command. My Father not so much. There was one time my dog was headed towards the street without a leash and my Dad was hollering at the top of his lungs and the dog couldn't have cared less. His yelling got my attention and when I gave the command he stopped dead in his tracks and came back.

Then there's my Mom who cooks for the dogs. They LOVE her but don't listen to a word she says. They had her trained. They'd go in the kitchen and bark whenever they wanted chicken or hamburger and she'd fire up the stove and serve it to them like clockwork. I left my current JRT with my parents while I was getting setup here in Puerto Rico. In 7 months he went from 18lbs to 23.5lbs. I had to put him on a crash diet so he'd make weight for the return flight.

^^^^
We have a similar scenario with our 2 year old aussie; Mrs Gear feeds the dogs a majority of the time and is the one that make the chicken or beef additive for their dry dog food (and they know it, believe you me ). But when she gets loose outside she will NOT listen to her. I only have to stick my head out of the door and call her one time and she comes right inside. Of course, she gets high praise, ear scrubs, and belly rubs from her alpha to reinforce her obedience so it may have something to do with it…

Nframe,

Chuck is a handsome pup!!! Your post really made me smile.

The loss of my best friend, a handsome Jack Russell Terrier after almost 18 years with us was one of the reasons I shocked my entire family and decided to get a puppy.

It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I love cats and have been fortunate to know some amazing kitties over the years but dogs are truly mans best friend.

Bean thinks I'm just about the coolest thing ever. When Ashley gets home, Bean is like, "oh cool, the other monkey. Anyway..." But when I get home she's right there, she wants scritches, she wants to sit on me, she wants to bonk heads. If I go back outside too soon after coming home, she runs around the house meowing loudly looking for me.

My Cici loves my wife over me.
I'm just a big playtoy. And a place to sleep on.