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Location: Vermont, USA
Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 13
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Aww, this sounds tricky. Sorry to hear about this situation. It sounds like there's a lack of communication and/or misunderstanding between your roommate and your dog, and also between you and your dog.
Starting with you and the dog: It sounds like your dog doesn't feel that the roommate can be trusted with you (hence the barking). Do you feel this way? Do you have issues with the roommate? If so, dogs are amazing at picking up energies and emotions from humans, and I'm sure the dog could sense anything that's going on, even if it's subtle. If you don't have issues yourself with the roommate, then it's probably a miscommunication between you and your dog, where the dog thinks you are uncomfortable around the roommate and you haven't learned how to tell the dog otherwise.
And roommate and the dog: obviously they have an anxious rivalry going on. The roommate doesn't like dogs, the dog knows that and doesn't feel respected/loved/welcomed by the roommate. It sounds like they're anxious around each other and haven't taking the time or focus to break through communication barriers and get to know and trust each other.
So, what can you do? Start with observation. Just use all your senses, watch and listen and observe all the details of your dog's interactions with the roommate, the dogs body language, the roommates body language, tone of voice. Dogs are sensitive to energy, and the best a human can do for their dog is to begin learning how to sense the energy in an environment, to see things that way the dog does, and come to a common understanding. Once this happens, you'll know exactly what's needed in order to repair the dogs relationship with the roommate, and I'm guessing your relationship with the dog will end up a lot deeper and more connected too. It's all about your individual situation, your own pack dynamic. So I can't offer you any specific advise without knowing what the dynamic is, but I can remind you to take time to examine this dynamic for yourself, to get to know yourself and your relationships more honestly and thoroughly. This is what dogs can teach us, if we are open to their lessons.
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