Scottie Behavior

Question
Dear Ms. Brittan.
Our scottie is 2-1/2 years old, and the only problem is that he is an indifferent pet. He will come around to "check" on us, but then usually goes off by himself.  He used to sleep in the bedroom, but no longer does so. Never got into bed like the other dogs
He will tolerate petting for a while, but then will walk away.
He is our fourth dog. We had a mini schnauser, and then two scotties. All lived into old age. This guy LOVES strangers, he is perfectly housebroken and has no behavorial problems. Can be left alone all day, excellent watchdog. Perfect, except I sure would like him to be more of a companion. Someone told me that this third scottie was a "Real one" with a typical scottie disposition, which is why they are not very popular. I would appreciate any advice. Thank you!

                              Greg Fischer

Answer
I am going to generalize here, and there are always exceptions when one does that. Terriers were bred to work independently of people, for the most part, so you will usually see more of that independence in Scotties, for instance, than you will a devoted companion/lap dog. If yours happens to be one of those who didn't get a lot of handling as a baby (and some need to be forced to accept it), then he could be independent.... plus.... a bit more extreme than some others.

Schnauzers, which are NOT true terriers, really don't have temperaments at all terrier-like, except for their high prey drive. They are more like working dogs, and tend to be more involved with their people.

Scotties often are prey-drive driven PLUS. If you want to be more involved with your dog, you might try encouraging some of that in him. Earthdog performance events (go-to-ground) are one way to do that. AKC and the American Working Terrier Association all have classes for that. You might want to check into that.

http://members.aol.com/mrbritmor/goground.html  
http://www.dirt-dog.com/awta/index.cfm  
http://www.akc.org/dic/events/search/index.cfm  

Karen