Favoritism in the household?

Cooper is our first dog and of course he came gets all the attention from me and DB.  Coops is loving only if he wants to.  He is an extremely dominant male Lab.  He will tell you he does not like it if you give him impromptu pats.  Yes, he will come to you if he wants his pats.  When I play rough with him, he doesn’t mind it but when I put an arm across his shoulders, he will tell me to buzz off!  Gurrrrr!  That is how he sounds.  I know I’m not suppose to piss him off when he does that sound, but here I am, imitate his growls and fire him up in which he thinks I’m playing with him.  He will get into his playful mode but some days he will ignore me and give that “don’t bother me” look.  I call it the “cold shoulder”.   This dog has his moments.  Yeah, moody.  I don’t quite like his personality, honestly, although he is very protective especially when we go for our walks and of course in the house.

Then comes Ranger.  We adopted him when he was three years old.  He was neglected and left alone in the back yard with his bucket of food and water by his first owners, previously from Minnesota but moved to Detroit, Michigan.  So you can imagine how big Ranger was: like a barrell, that was what the breeder told us.  His breeder brought him back to Minnesota when he was a year old and got him back to tip top shape after a year.  Ranger has his rules set when we got him: loves to eat, does not like human and other dog interactions.  But after seven years with us, he still loves to eat but he loves the human contact now, although he still prefers to be alone some times.  He is a very docile dog.  I can use him as a pillow, put my arm around his shoulders, rub his ears, pat him, and massage him, he will not budge, he will let me.  Needless to say, he became my favorite!  The only thing I cannot shake his bad habit is nibbling and grab a hold of our hand.  He loves to nibble at us when we rub his belly and when we play with him. His tail will go 200 mph but that nibble and grip on his mouth feels like 600 pounds.

Since Chase came into our household last year, periodically and became permanently in June, I have to admit, I’m being bad!   Yes, kick my butt if you want to.  I favor him more.  Why?  Coz he is very loving.  Too loving and loves human contact from day 1.  He will come to us for pats, lay his head on the sofa or on our thigh and even when it bed time, he will come to us, lay his head on the bed (where my face is), look at us with those puppy eyes.  He has a very playful demeanor, no one sign of aggression when we give him “hugs”.  The only one thing we both do not like about is Chase loves to lick every damn thing in sight which drives us crazy.  No matter how much you tell him NO, he still does it.  How to stop that habit??  I can’t carry the bottle bitter apple with me all the time.  But I still don’t mind him.  Maybe it’s new broom sweeps well? 

I noticed since Chase is with us permanently, Cooper is giving both of us lots of “cold shoulders” but he still comes to us for pats which I give him freely.  And he always is the first to get his food, treats and every thing else because he is, after all, the resident dog.