Hi there. Bo is my first dog, I adopted him from a shelter and he's just shy of a year old. They say he's a Plott Hound, but I have no idea if that's true. As far as I'm concerned he's just a cute 70 lb brindle mutt. I love this dog to pieces, but I don't think the feeling is even remotely reciprocated. And this is where I'd like some advice.Bo never seems happy. I walk him for 20 minutes roughly once a day; I only skip his walk if it's pouring outside. I buy him chew toys constantly, I'm training him using positive reinforcement (we have "sit", "down", "shake", "get your toy", "go to your room", and "potty" down thus far), I've crate trained him, and I'm usually the one who feeds him. I work from home often, too, so he and I are around each other a lot.I currently live in a house that has a huge fenced back yard. Initially he was free to run around, which was fine for the first few months, but then he learned he could climb the fence. He started making a routine of it to go and play with the other neighborhood dogs (our neighborhood has a terrible problem with their dogs escaping and free roaming the neighborhood; I'm usually the one who catches and returns them) so as a temporary solution, my SO and I bought an extra long tether that would still let him roam around the majority of the yard.His appetite is ok; Bo never really finishes his food but he eats most of it. I've taken him to the vet a few times already and he's gotten a clean bill of health at each visit.I'm a huge animal lover. I love Bo and I want him to be happy. But it seems that no matter what I do, he just... doesn't like me. I'll get a single tail wag from him if we haven't seen each other for a while, but other than that, this dog has absolutely zero excitement for me. I get no reaction when I pet him, even when he rolls over for belly rubs; he'll just either stare at me or off into the distance. If I sit with him outside, he'll stand in front of me, turn around, and shuffle backwards until he's able to just lean his butt on me, which I have no idea what that's about, but yeah he's quite the leaner.Meanwhile when my SO comes home (we adopted him together, so he's known us the same length of time), Bo's tail goes crazy to a full butt-wiggle of excitement. He's visibly excited when the SO is home and it kind of upsets me a little because I'm the one putting 99% of the work in to take care of him.These were the biggest points I wanted to bring up, other little things about Bo:He stretches a lot, doing that "downward dog" pose thing. I've mentioned this to the vet, they checked him out, and didn't find anything wrong with him.He's incredibly stranger (adult and children) and animal-friendly. He loves when we have company over.He lives with two cats, which we only allow brief interactions with due to the comfort level of our cats versus Bo's puppy energy that they don't want to deal with.It's impossible to tell if he likes being pet. I look for any sign of nervousness, but the tail/ears posture and his eyes don't really show any signs of stress. If he's lounging and I go to pet him he just... sits there and takes it. Not a single tail wag.I am moving into my new house in two weeks, and will immediately be putting up one of those wooden/privacy fences to make sure he can have free reign of the new big backyard. I would have done that here, but unfortunately I'm renting this house and don't have that option. I feel terrible tethering him now, but even when I'm out to supervise, he'll still attempt to climb the fence.I have no knowledge of his previous home situation. We adopted him at about 5-6 months old.Maybe I'm just used to being around more high energy dogs? Every other dog I've met just seems infinitely more energetic/excited/responsive than Bo. I want to make sure he's happy, and I'm trying to figure out what I can do (or what I should stop doing) to improve the quality of his life.Suggestions? Maybe new toys? His two favorites are currently his red chewing bone and his Kong, which I like to fill up with treats at lunch to let him roll and throw it around. More walks? Maybe I need to give him more space? I do often hug him and give him top-of-the-head kisses along with belly, chest, and butt scratches. I'm also concerned it could be some sort of doggy depression, which I took him to the vet to ask about, but the vet didn't seem concerned about it.Any advice would be great. I just want Bo to be happy.Thanks all.TL;DR My rescue dog hardly ever seems happy and doesn't seem to like me. I train him, buy him toys, walk him, and have taken him to the vet recently, who says he's completely healthy. I'd like advice on other things I could try to make him happy, or if this is just how some dogs are. via /r/dogs http://ift.tt/2rwlc65
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