The Ladies' Man

After deciding that walking Prince was one of the best ways to expose him to a variety of people, I began a morning schedule of taking him out immediately after I got up, and deliberately walking him past whichever unsuspecting individual happened to be out and about.  I figured that as long as he did not have any negative experiences, he would learn to tolerate people fairly well.  At least, that was what the articles I read had suggested.  He might not be friendly (and I really did not expect him, as a German Shepherd, to be very friendly) but at least he would not be so vicious that he would potentially hurt an innocent person.

"Don't forget," my mother warned me, when I told her about my plan, "German Shepherds are usually not friendly dogs."  Since she and my father had owned a total of four of them, I figured she ought to know.

In retrospect, I should have known that Prince would end up reacting completely differently.

One of the first "strangers" we encountered during phase 1 of my plan was a neighbor that lived half a block away.  Prince was almost 5 months old (although he already looked like a full grown standard sized German Shepherd).  As we walked past their house one bright and chilly morning, the neighbor and his wife happened to be pulling out of their driveway, and he rolled down the window to talk to me.

"How old is that dog?" he asked, as Prince paused to stare at him in the aloof, curious fashion I had hoped for.

"He's only 5 months old," I said.

As he stared at me doubtfully, I heard the passenger door click, and then it unexpectedly flew open.  His wife leaped out of the car and came running toward us, her arms held out to Prince as if he were a long lost relative.

I was too stunned to pull him away until it was too late.  Prince froze, stared at her with almost as much astonishment as I had...and then, as she neared him, began to dance, his ears laid back and his tail wagging furiously.  The next thing I knew, she had her arms wrapped around him, and he was doing his best to lick her face.

"Good boy, Prince," I said, lamely, although neither one of them seemed to hear me.

A moment later, she released him and ran back to the car, giggling, whereupon he tried to go with her.

Prince demanding a hug

It was a turning point in Prince's life...and mine.  Whereas before, I had been worried about what his reaction to new people would be, I now knew (when it came to women, anyway) exactly what it would be.  All women suddenly became, to Prince, potential givers of hugs.

To this day, if women don't get down on their knees and give him a hug when they meet him, he will jump up, put his paws on their shoulders and demand one.   Hiding from him doesn't accomplish anything, either...when he goes to the veterinarian's office, and the receptionists huddle behind the chest high desk in the lobby, he knocks everything off it in order to get to them.  The technicians always make sure to get down and hug him when he leaves the office.

With men, however, it was a completely different story......as I discovered when I began to expose my boyfriend's poor unsuspecting friends to him.