Dad didn’t even want a dog.
It was this way with our family dog growing up, that we got when I was maybe 5 or 6. Dad finally acquiesced begrudgingly after years of my older siblings wearing him down, and we got the last of a family friend’s dog’s puppies. Other than a few irregular chores the rest of us had of cleaning up after her, he ended up doing all the hard work of training her and making sure she was cared for properly. He had had dogs when he was younger and I think knowing how difficult the eventual loss is, is what kept us from getting one earlier. We all loved that dog but his actions showed he did the most.
The dogs looks like it’s thinking “man, I just can’t seem to get away from this guy”.
Not even the “I can’t walk stairs anymore” ruse worked
Back when I lived in a two story house, when we got our dogs (different times), I made a point to sleep downstairs when they first came home to help them get acclimated to sleeping downstairs. And anytime they were sick or injured, I would sleep downstairs with them, again so they wouldn’t feel alone.
But now that I live in a single story, and I don’t have a partner who is against dogs in the bed, I let my dog sleep in the bed with me.
Well, that and because mom found out he spent their life savings on NFTs.
He’s in the doghouse