My pet is 9 y.o. Her name is Beccka. She is an American Eskimo, about 16-19 lbs. It takes time to warm her up at time, but give her time and let her be she'll be the one to come to you. She loves to be pet but as I mentioned, she has to come to you first and once she's good, she will be all over you. Unfortunately she barks when she's warming up and eventually gets better. Previous pet sitter states she does not bark a lot :). We will possibly going out of town on Oct for 3 weeks and we are looking and trying to get a pet sitter to try who she will get a long with and who we will be comfortable leaving her for quite some time. We want to trial 1-2 days see how she does with the new pet sitter. We have one but sometimes she has plans and can't take care of our Beccka