For two weeks now, your dog, Riley, has been especially affectionate and clingy to you like never before.

You and Simon are watching a movie and eating chips and other junk food, unaware that your dog is protecting someone in your belly, resting his face on it and clasping his paws together.

"He's protecting you. He's really taken a liking to you," Simon says, stroking the German Shepherd's ear, and he whines and wag his tail.