The important reason why woman recorded dog waiting for dad to come home

A woman has shown off the unshakable bond between a dog and his owner as he waited impatiently for him to come home.

Amira Tocher was at home with fiancé Liam Shepherd’s Scottish terrier, Xavier, when she noticed him acting unusual.

In a video shared to TikTok on May 21 showing Xavier gazing out the window, getting excited at every noise and looking back at her with a questioning look, she wrote: “Dog owners never get to see how excited their best friend becomes when they are expecting them home.”

The black Scottie usually listens out for the sound of Shepherd’s car pulling into the drive, but on this occasion, he was driving a rental as his own vehicle was in the garage, and Tocher realized Xavier was now pricking up his ears at every single car that passed by, just in case it was his owner.

“Our Scottie knows the sound of dad’s car, but this week we had a rental, so Xavier listened to every car that passed by and did this each time just in case it was him,” said Tocher.

Tocher (@amiranna23), who lives in Scotland, added that, within a day, Xavier had learned what Shepherd’s rental sounded like, and added: “He loves his owner so much.”

Speaking to Newsweek, Tocher explained Xavier joined Shepherd’s family during the pandemic, “to give himself the responsibility of being a dog dad and have a companion to look after.”

“I had never seen someone so excited and ‘ready’ for a puppy, he had puppy-proofed his whole house and bought so many things, half of it he probably didn’t need,” Tocher, who at that point was just friends with her now-fiancé, said.

And, immediately, “they were inseparable.”

“Xavier loves Liam so much that when we got together he had a little adjusting to do, at first he would eat my shoes because I took the attention away,” she recalled. “But soon he was happy just to join us for cuddles and he just has to share his dad now, but not have any less attention.”

Dogs, like humans, can experience jealousy if they’re expected to share their owner with another animal or human. In a report from PetMD, veterinarian Dr. Geoffrey Broderick said dogs “need individual attention, lots of cuddling, and activities to keep them busy and to keep them from being bored.”

He added: “Sometimes, our pets just want us, and they don’t want to share us with another pet or person.”

Now, the family has settled into a routine, and while Xavier “used to lie by the front door and wait” whenever Shepherd left, “now he sits with me, and the kids, and watches and listens out of the window for dad.”

“This was the first day that he had a rental car and I was recording because I wondered what he would do,” Tocher explained about the video.

“Liam had picked the car up in the morning and driven to Glasgow so Xavier was waiting for him and listening to every car to try hear if it was him. You have to drive past the window and turn into the car park, so Xavi was waiting to hear if the cars turned and then looked to me to say ‘is it him?’ because he heard the car turn in.

She added: “Usually when his normal car drives by, Xavi runs to the front door, sometimes he even barks at me to come open the door!”

Speaking about her husband-to-be, Tocher said: “Sometimes it’s just nice to let him know that although Xavier has a bigger family, Liam will always be Xavier’s favorite person and his main owner, and he will always be waiting on him to come home.”

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