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334 Posts
Hello everyone!
I want to thank everyone for all of your help, encouragement, and advice these first 3ish months of being a doberman owner. I can't believe it's only been that short amount of time. It feels as if Zeus has been in our lives for so much longer than that!
We recently received news that my husband is going to deploy out of the country. He'll be gone for nine months. I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience with extended separations with a doberman? My boy is a puppy now and when my husband returns, he'll be over a year old. Do y'all think Zeus will see him as a stranger? I was thinking of having clothes for him to periodically smell so he remembers/knows his scent when he comes home, but I'm not sure how long a person's scent lasts on clothing, and I don't know if that'll even be helpful. Any sort of advice of how to keep the missing member of our pack in his memory?
When he does come home, should it be a slow and gradual reintroduction? I know when I was gone for college, my German shepherd was super excited to see me as if no time had passed at all when I came home for semester breaks. And I know there are a lot of videos out there of soldiers coming home from deployments and dogs being ecstatic to see them, but since Zeus is still so young, I wasn't sure if that sort of bond/imprint/whatever has had time to be established.
He was fine when he came home after a month. Just a few behavior changes that I mentioned in a previous post (which are not nearly as bad now!) but that was one month, not nine.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice!
I want to thank everyone for all of your help, encouragement, and advice these first 3ish months of being a doberman owner. I can't believe it's only been that short amount of time. It feels as if Zeus has been in our lives for so much longer than that!
We recently received news that my husband is going to deploy out of the country. He'll be gone for nine months. I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience with extended separations with a doberman? My boy is a puppy now and when my husband returns, he'll be over a year old. Do y'all think Zeus will see him as a stranger? I was thinking of having clothes for him to periodically smell so he remembers/knows his scent when he comes home, but I'm not sure how long a person's scent lasts on clothing, and I don't know if that'll even be helpful. Any sort of advice of how to keep the missing member of our pack in his memory?
When he does come home, should it be a slow and gradual reintroduction? I know when I was gone for college, my German shepherd was super excited to see me as if no time had passed at all when I came home for semester breaks. And I know there are a lot of videos out there of soldiers coming home from deployments and dogs being ecstatic to see them, but since Zeus is still so young, I wasn't sure if that sort of bond/imprint/whatever has had time to be established.
He was fine when he came home after a month. Just a few behavior changes that I mentioned in a previous post (which are not nearly as bad now!) but that was one month, not nine.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice!
