'Our dog is suddenly very attached to wife and won’t leave her alone. It's concerning.' UPDATED 2X

When your pet's behavior suddenly changes, it's smart to pay attention.

"[Help] Dog suddenly very attached to wife and won’t leave her alone."

Otis is 3. We adopted him at a year old from the shelter. He’s always been very snuggly and my wife has always been “his” human, but recently he’s been taking it to another level. Otis is a big black pit bull with docked ears and tail (we adopted him like that!).

We know he’s a giant ball of blubber and love but other people don’t, so we’ve been very careful to train him not to be “scary,” great manners, no jumping or barking, etc...basically this is VERY out of character for him.

A week or two ago, my wife got some sort of stomach bug. She was really nauseous and ill for about a week. Otis is very in tune with her emotions (we once got in a fight and she was upset, I swear he was staring daggers at me lol) and during this time didn’t even want to leave her to go on walks. We thought it was adorable!

Well now my wife is feeling much better and his attachment hasn’t gone away. It seems like he got used to her being home all day for that week and developed separation anxiety. My wife goes to the bathroom, he cries outside the door. She leaves for work, he mopes by the front door until she gets home.

And when she gets home, all he wants to do is drape himself all over her. It’s getting annoying (well 50% of the time it’s annoying, 50% of the time it’s cute). Then tonight on their walk through the park another dog ran up to her and Otis (lots of people let their dogs run around off leash even though they’re not supposed to).

The moment it got near my wife, apparently Otis began to bear his teeth and growl. He has NEVER done this. We’re trying to figure out what’s going on. If this is the start of an aggression issue we’d like to nip it in the bud. We’ll call the vet tomorrow for a checkup just to make sure he isn’t in pain and manifesting it like that. But mostly we’re just confused.

I don’t know if we’re overreacting, we may be. Maybe the growling and the attachment were spectate incidents and there was just something about that one dog he really didn’t like. Has anyone else’s dog suddenly developed attachment/aggression issues? Any and all advice appreciated, even if it’s that we’re being paranoid!

Commenters had some theories.

ZZBC wrote:

Any chance your wife is pregnant?

OP responded:

Oh s-t.

n93s wrote:

Exactly what I thought. Do a pregnancy check pal.

OP responded:

Huh. Maybe Otis should parent the kid too, since he’s clearly more switched on then either of us.

noximis wrote:

You wife being pregnant would explain this. When I became pregnant our dogs got really clingy and protective. I went from having one dog who was bonded to two. They followed me everywhere and slept curled up to me. They all would sniff my belly too. Dogs are sensitive to things like this. They will protect the expecting mother and baby as they would in a pack.

StrawberryK*ller responded:

Aw heck picturing a dog sniffing a pregnant belly is TOO MUCH CUTEEEEE. I never got to be pregnant with a dog but my heart cat was my total BFF and slept anytime and anyplace I did. I have a bunch of cute pics of gliding my new baby where you can barely see the baby bc of the fluffy cat. She’d also lay behind the baby to make cookies (knead) gently on the baby’s back.

Idontbelieveinblue wrote:

Hey OP, just wanted to say I hope the result is whatever you guys want it to be! And if she IS pregnant then give Otis lots of head scratches and tell him he’s a v good boy. Actually do that anyway

OP responded:

Thanks! It’s something we’ve been trying for for a while which is why I’m kind of kicking myself in the face for not thinking of it. Can’t sleep now lol. Trying not to get my hopes up high until we know. It would be a great story though, if our dog and the internet had to tell us she was expecting.

Later that day, OP jumped on with a small update.

Edit: I have been informed that it’s possible my wife is pregnant. She’s sleeping now but I’ll tell her and she’ll take a test tomorrow morning. Maybe our dog should raise the child too, since he’s clearly more switched on then either or our dumb a-es are.

The comments kept coming in.

Sheamless wrote:

It’s been 10 hours. Wake her up and pee on a stick. I wanna know

seanky wrote:

The suspense is so real with this one.

Kt-bug17 wrote:

This sounds like he might be smelling some sort of change in your wife (fingers crossed it’s happy news!!). My only word of caution is to keep an eye out so that this behavior does not evolve into resource guarding of your wife or any other member of the family.

caxticles wrote:

Came here to say my dog's behavior drastically changed when I got pregnant. He's much more needy and went from being with my husband all the time to being with me all the time, if I make the slightest sound in the house, he will run like hell to me to see if I am okay.

It might not be it, it might just be a reaction to her being very sick. In both cases, try to make moments when your wife is not around as enjoyable as possible for him.

If she goes to another room and closes the door, give the good boi a treat, a toy, a puzzle, something to keep him busy. Practice with people being touchy/pushy with your wife and encourage him to be on his mat and relax, with again, some more treats, same with another dog that you trust. KEEP US POSTED.

A month later, OP shared another update.

UPDATE: The wifey is pregnant! Otis is still being overprotective but it all makes sense now! Thanks for all the advice and kind words! Sorry for the delayed reply, I didn’t check back until just now!

The internet was happy to hear the update.

jansipper wrote:

This makes me want to get a dog when I’m trying to get pregnant :)

nolantheblue wrote:

My family dog started doing this with my mother when she was pregnant. The dog knew before she did.

baadakku wrote:

We recently found out my wife is pregnant as well and my dog would NOT leave her alone either. She (my dog) has become my wife’s shadow. It’s so freaking adorable.

Larkscarlett wrote:

It’s funny, my sister’s dog is the same way with pregnant women! Including pregnant-me when I’d visited—he became Velcro-dog. Funnily enough the attentive-protectiveness continues throughout breastfeeding-time; he knows the baby is dependent. Anyone else experienced the same?

Issyswe wrote:

With my first, my Boston Terrier did exactly this. She was rescued from a kill shelter in Missouri, not long after the 2008 crash, where she was found pregnant and genetically deaf and had gotten pregnant less than one year old. They were going to euthanize her as soon as her puppies were weaned, but a kind woman got her out.

The dog was only half the way it should be. She was nurse back to health and then sent to the north east where we were able to adopt her. She came home and 10 months later I was pregnant. She then constantly lived on my lap, and even our neighbors who came over all the time and who she used to run over to play with, got growls. Any man was potential danger. Women were not treated suspiciously.

Went to hospital, gave birth and hubby brought the baby’s hat home for the doggy to smell. When I came home with baby, said hat was in the dog bed with her. At this point, she transferred all her protection to that baby. To the point that she started to lose weight and refused to leave the baby to go eat.

I had to breast-feed next to her dog bowl. On the day she died, that little baby was six years old and she played with her like she wasn’t dying with cancer riddled throughout her body. All dogs are wonderful, but I am convinced that we only get one truly incomparable dog. She was mine.