We have an 8 year old female Aketa. We have had her since she was 6 weeks old. She is very protective of family and a threat to outsiders but always has been extremely loving with our children. In January our 18 year old son went to basic training and was gone until June. When he came back our dog barks growls and bears her teeth at him. We are shocked as he was always her favorite. We have tried slow approches he talks to her. We have presented him out of uniform, in different settings and have no success. Why has this happened and what can we do? :(

I have never heard of a situation like this, dogs usually have very good memory when it comes to the family that raised them.

They use so many senses, smell, sight, sounds, all should have triggered the memory of one of his owners, even after a long period.

I used to visit my Grandmother only once a year, for 2 or 3 days at a time.

Her dogs always remembered me, and would greet me as if they just saw me yesterday.

I can say this, there were times, in my more ignorant days, when I experimented with some recreational drug use. I won't go into all of the substances I played around with, but I will say this.

There were times, when I would come home, or back to my Grandmothers, while still under the influence, and the dogs always reacted differently under those circumstances.

They wouldn't come to greet me like nomal, they wouldn't come when I called them, and I could tell that they could tell that something just wasn't right with me while under the influence.

I'm not saying he must be using drugs, but there is something going on that his dog doesn't recognize. Our pets are very in tune with us, in more ways than we can even realize.

They can pick up on things that to us are unseen, unheard, and even smells we can't detect. They can pick up on changes in our attitude, and are unusually good judges of character.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge of dogs, your breed in particular, will have a better answer for you.