Do your pets have a different relationship with everyone in your household?

I've noticed that our Calico seems to have a different type of relationship with each member of our household.

With me, even though I feed her, change her litterbox and am home with her most often, she doesn't show me much affection.

When it comes to my husband who's only home with her a few hours before he goes to bed, she can't get enough of him. She rubs against him, licks his hair and will sit on his lap. ( she won't do that with me!)


My son could carry her around lime a rag doll and tug on her tail and she still wouldn't scratch him. She also likes sleeping on his bed with him.

I've heard that cats, and sometimes dogs, tend to form a single strong bond. Even in a family settings, cats tend to gravitate toward a single family member, seemingly at random. I understand the perplexity of being the primary caretaker and yet not getting much of the love

When I lived with my family, we had four cats, but two were "mine" and two my brother's. One cat positively despised me, and I have no idea why. I took care of her, fed her, and hand-raised her since she was little. Yet for some reason, she clung to my brother instead. Now she's "his" cat, and nobody made that choice but her!

Something similar happened with a little dog. Even though I was the one who spotted and rescued him, he quickly became my father's companion and used to run right past me to greet my father if we came home together. Talk about rude!

My own cats ignored the rest of my family and wouldn't eat unless I fed them myself. While they were never hostile toward my family, they preferred to avoid them whenever possible.

Do you have any other pets? I have the theory that animals get jealous if they think you're giving more attention to someone else. My brother's cat, for example, is far friendlier now when I come to visit her and my two other cats aren't around to hog the attention.

At the moment we only have our cat and a few Oscar fish. It's to funny that she's all up in my husbands buisiness. I guess she really enjoys the way my husband smells after work. Mmm, sweat!

She's not mean to me though, so at least there's that. I guess I need to get myself much sweatier. When my husband comes home and sets his work hat down she runs over and sniffs it and rubs against it. He actually gave her one of his old hats to have as her own

I would say my dog is the same around all the family members in the house. Though he is very protective of the kids . If he hears screaming or yelling from them playing he runs to see what they are doing. Even though they play rough he does not like it when he feels one is being hurt he will jump and bark at the person . Not knowing they are playing . My kids have learned to tell the dog its ok so he can calm down. As for me the dog follows me to the trash can around the house I have no idea why. He just likes to follow me. He is the child that I always wanted he can't talk back!

I have to agree about pets having different relationships with each family member.
My cat shows me affection and will often follow me around because he knows I feed him and give him his treats.
My husband gets the occasional cuddle from him but not as often.
As for my daughter, well, lets just say the cat goes into self preservation mode when she is around! He will take quite a bit of picking up and pulling about, but often will make an exit if he hears her coming.

We have two cats. One was raised in this household and was my son's cat, but she took to me. I think probably because I was the nicest to her. My ex husband and our three boys tended to be more rough with her and she doesn't like to be handled. I just talk to her nicely and pet her on her terms, so I've always figured that's why she took to me. She still (at age 15) doesn't like to be held, but follows me around the house and talks to me, sits near me when I'm working. She is tolerant of my new husband but she doesn't follow him around, or seek attention from him.

My husbands cat is an attention hog so she'll actually be friendly with anyone who sits still long enough. I feel a bit badly, though, that even though she's my "husband's" cat (she came to live here last May, when we got married.) if he and I are both sitting on the sofa she'll choose my lap over his. I don't know why, because he's super loving toward her and much more tolerant of being licked by her.

Funny, though, how they tend to pick one person. My brother and his family used to have four cats, and each one of them picked a different human in the house to bond with. I guess it worked out well...every cat got its own human, and every human got its own cat!

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(08-18-2013 10:19 AM)cg303 Wrote:  I would say my dog is the same around all the family members in the house. Though he is very protective of the kids . If he hears screaming or yelling from them playing he runs to see what they are doing. Even though they play rough he does not like it when he feels one is being hurt he will jump and bark at the person . Not knowing they are playing . My kids have learned to tell the dog its ok so he can calm down. As for me the dog follows me to the trash can around the house I have no idea why. He just likes to follow me. He is the child that I always wanted he can't talk back!

Our dog used to do that, too. We raised three boys and they loved (still do) to rough house. It kind of made her bonkers...she didn't know which one of her boys to defend! Man, I miss that dog!!! If I could be guaranteed of getting another one as wonderful as she was (okay, well, the first five years were kind of rough as she grew out of puppy stage!) I'd get another dog.

My animals seem to have different attitudes and relationships with me than they do with my husband.
Chipper is , and has always been, just my dog. The only time that he pays attention to my husband is when he is eating a tuna sandwich, then Chipper is sitting there, right in front of him, sitting up, waving his paws, and and begging for some sandwich from him, like I wasn't even there.
Otherwise, Chipper is usually lying on his little soft pillow in my lap, as I am watching TV, or surfing the Internet on the iPad.

Now, Tootsie, is pretty much attached to both of us equally, but she is a latecomer, and was not raised by us like Chipper was. Her favorite place is curled up on the couch, unless we are eating something , then she is up and watching for a handout, just like Chipper does.

My cats also have a different set of behaviors around different people, and they behave in a whole different way when there's more than one person around them. I take care of them the most, but in the beginning, my older cat was more fond of my brother. I'm not sure why was that, or at what moment she switched her affection towards me. It might have something to do with the fact that I was the one taking her to the vet most of the time, and she seemed to view me as the person who let her out of the crate and comforted her on the return home, rather than the person who put her in in the first place. She dislikes new people, so she's not very found of my boyfriend either. She doesn't act aggressive, just acts more rude and jumpy when he's around.
My younger cat is very affectionate towards everybody, but he seemed to like me better for a while. He was a bit more bitey around my brother. Now I think he keeps an equal cuddling-biting ratio towards both of us.

Our dog has a different relationship with each of us at home. Obviously he recognizes my husband as the pack leader because he follows him most of the time. He also follows my eldest son around 80% of the time. He almost never follows me and my youngest son BUT he loves us more. He always comes to us to have us pet, cuddle or carry him. He never does that to my husband and eldest son even though they are willing to cuddle him too. I think our dog feels he always has to be behaved with them while he can be himself with us.

Oh yes. Our Boston Terrier Brogan treats me like I am "his" property. I know that's definitely NOT a good thing but I don't know how to fix it. And with my husband he is more laid back and mellow. He is the same way with our roommate. I don't understand what I have done wrong but he will nip at me when I act silly and dance (even when I ignore him). Also, when I am walking him home from playing in my moms yard across from our house he will bite my pant legs and grab my shoes and bite them. I will stop and tell him NO very firmly but it doesn't matter. He still does it. :/

Absolutely! My cat will talk to my boyfriend and rub against his legs and follow him around the house all day, which he doesn't do to me. However, since he was a kitten, he will curl up on my chest when I lay down to go to sleep at night. He'll stay there for a while, purr his goodnights and leave, he never does this to my boyfriend. Animals have so much more personality than people think!

My brother seems to have a special connection to ALL animals he comes in contact with. Our 2 family cats have always been most fond of him. Me, they mostly want to sleep with, my mother is the one the call for when they want food, and my father is the one they go to the least. So, yes, our pets have different relationships with all of my familymembers.

For me, my dog has a different relationship with everyone at home. With my dad, Charlie sees him more as a disciplinarian and tries not to get in his way. You can tell that she knows he is the head of the house. With my helpers, Charlie acts a lot more playful but sometimes doesn't listen to them. She tries to get away with chewing slippers and they usually have to run after her and she hides under the bed. With me, she comes for comfort. She gets excited every time I come home from school and when I come from a night out, she gets up from the couch to sleepily greet me, wait for me to pat her on the head for 2 minutes then goes back to the couch.