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...
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You've developed a great bond with your dog, taking him to work and working on schutzhund with him, and your roommates don't have that.
You are his pack leader and he respects you-so much that he's ignoring your roommates until you are home. IMO, that's a good thing, especially with a working dog. Also, your dog is probably going through doggy puberty, being the age he is.
Just be glad he hasn't tried to challenge your roommates. I wouldn't worry about it, your dog is doing what he should be doing(IMO) by not interacting with your roommates while your not home.

Melissa,

I answered your other, duplicate, post.

Just wanted to remind you that in general it's frowned upon to post your question in more than one forum.

People who come here regularly look at the active topics list instead of checking each and every forum, so even if you only post once, your question should be seen and answered.

Just FYI

Thanks Amber for the FYI. I can't figure out how to erase the post from this board, I would like to leave it up on the general discussion board. If there's a moderatior who wants to delete it, please do. Thanks.

After a certain time period, you can no longer edit your posts. It's not a big deal, but if everyone does duplicate posts in makes the forum really cluttered.

Also, later when someone does a search for a similar problem as you have, it's a lot better to have all of the answers in one thread instead of having to look through multiple duplicate posts.

Cheers!

got here a little late ...

why do they force him? He's YOUR dog. Malinois are very owner orientated and having someone who is not his pack leader drag him around is not good for the dog. If he doesnt want to play then he shouldnt be forced, if he gets old enough or jack of it he will turn around and challenge them - so you get the phone call 'oh we tried dragging the dog off your bed and he bit me'

Just because you see them as part of your pack doesnt mean the Mal does. My dog loves all my visitors and will play with them, accept kisses and cuddles. But I dont consider them part of the pack at all. My ex bf still lives with us so he would be since he was there since she was 10 weeks old.

I dont know why you want to change it. If they desperately want a dog to play with they should get their own, apart from that I would get them to leave the dog alone when you are not there.

Julie thanks for joining in late, it's always nice to have another perspective.

Just for clarification, these are my roommates and have been for most of my dog's life (he's 20 months). Moreover, as I said in my first post, they are more family than friends (we've been friends 12 years).

While they are not allowed to do any training with my dog they live with him and are definitely in our "pack" and the dog knows that they (like all humans) outrank him. So if they take his collar and want him to go somewhere he goes along without being dragged.

I just wasn't sure if this was a normal developmental stage that all of a sudden he is such a one person dog. Everyone I've talked to says this is normal Mal behavior so we've all accepted it and the guys don't push the issue. We were also concerned because if I am gone for a few days it worries them that the dog is so withdrawn.

Thanks for responding, sounds like you have a sweetie Mal too. Hope you enjoy her as much as I do my boy.