Question regarding dog deserting owner

Question
After my daughter, Natalie, went to the hospital for four days due to a C-Section her beloved Shitzu Terrier Mix (1 yr old)'Sugar' has deserted her, snobs her, refuses to hang out with her or stay in her room at night. They were so so close before this. Now her dog has picked a new owner, me, which really hurts my daughter's feelings. Natalie has made regular breaks to show Sugar how much she loves her but it hasn't changed Sugar's cold shoulder. What can we do to re-acclaimate Sugar to her real owner?
Thanks,
Gwen

Answer
Once a dog changes its "affiliation", I don't know if there is much one can do about that. The same thing happened here with one of our dogs. Peter had slept with me since he was quite young; he went everywhere with me when he was younger. One night he decided he wanted to sleep with my daughter, and that was pretty much it for me... and once she decided to start training him in agility, that was definitely my "demise".

You need to start ignoring the dog as much as possible and your daughter needs to start making life more interesting for the dog. Do not pet, feed, or even talk to the dog. I realize that your daughter is pretty involved with the new baby, but she needs to go out of her way to interact with the dog. She should also involve the baby as much as possible so that the dog understands that the baby is now a member of the family "pack".

Frankly, if the dog really prefers your company, she should give you the dog, and you should get your daughter another one. I have a young dog here that I would have placed except for the fact that she decided that the sun rises and sets in my husband, and she is like his shadow when he is home; I don't have the heart to break that up.