Please help me understand my dog's strange behavior.

I have a 17 month old Malinois who lives with me and my two roommates who are more like family than friends. I am a young woman and my roommates are two young men. My dog has always viewed the roommates as his best buddies. The guys in his "pack" that he can cuddle and play with. My dog is very bonded to me (goes to work with me and does schutzhund with me) but he has always been crated when home alone and spent time with the guys when I'm gone.

Recently he has begun to refuse to interact with the boys if I am not home. They will let him out of his crate and he will make a straight beeline (happy trot) to my room and lie there waiting for me to come home. He refuses to come out of my room. If they force him he will go with them while they hold his collar but takes the first opportunity to return to my room. When I get home he is happy to see me and ALSO happy to see the boys. He runs around like we ALL just got home and wants to interact (play, cuddle etc) with them and me.

We were out of town a lot two weeks ago because one of the roommates was ill in the hospital but since then we are back on our normal routine.

What is going on here? Any insight or explanations of this behavior would be appreciated. Any ideas on how to change this?
Thanks in advance...

Melissa, It appears you have a very strong bond with your dog and he sees you as the leader. The two guys are just playmates that he feels he doesn't have to obey until they force him to. Count yourself lucky.

Being as you are doing sport with him, and there may come a circumstance where he actually might have to protect you with his ability , Him not obeying others would be a good thing. I wouldn't worry about it.

Howard

I envy your bond with your dog!

Just had to ask though: Did you ask anyone who may have been with him while you were out if anything happened to him? Could he have been scared, stepped on, fallen down stairs, etc? Could be that he doesn't feel all that safe without you there.

Don't want to inject paranoia at all, but I think it's best to make sure that it's just good bonding and nothing else.

Thanks for your replies. I am very grateful for the good bond I have with him and I am totally fine with him not obeying anyone else. My concern is that he appears to ONLY be secure when I'm home. I would like him to be relaxed enough to hang out with the people we live with when I'm not there. He didn't used to act this way.
No one reported any trauma to me while we were gone - I did ask. Is this just a maturity thing?

Perhaps the dog is experiencing a little seperation anxiety as a result of you being out of town? I have heard of this happening to dogs who are very attached to a single owner. This can happen with lost or abandoned pound dogs, I hear.

If you want the dog to snap out of it, I would have the roommates do something that the dog really likes while you're gone (playing ball, going for a walk, etc) and for awhile I would only do that fun stuff when you're gone so that he looks forward to that playtime with the roommates. Coordinating a feeding time so that the roomies can do it wouldn't hurt either. This will work even better if you are gone on a specific schedule that the dog can get used to.

However, if the dog doesn't seem to be in any really distress (meaning he doesn't cry or destroy stuff) while you're gone, I would leave well enough alone. Many people work REALLY hard to get a dog that bonded with them. I think it's really cool. I know your roommates might have hurt feelings, but dogs don't worry about that sort of thing. He wants to be with you and IMO there is nothing wrong with that.

You might be sorry if the dog starts to really enjoy being with them and you lose out!!

Keep us posted!