I'm trying to like it, because it's important to my wife that I do and I want to make her happy.
The method I've been employing so far is just spending a shit ton of time with it. Walking it, playing with it, petting it, that kind of thing. There are two reasons I thought this might work.
For one, people seem to naturally like dogs without putting forth the effort. Where I see, you know... Wet saliva and breath and barking, shedding and neediness, dirtiness and dog food and vet bills and time constraints and an inability to travel, other people see companionship and loyalty and whatever and overlook the things that first come to my mind without trying too hard.
The other is that I didn't spend much time trying to do anything in particular with my wife's other dog, and what started as indifference progressed to dislike and then to hate over the past almost decade.
So I've been spending a lot of time with this new one, even though doing so makes me miserable, because I want the eventual outcome of me liking it, which seems worth feeling like shit to get there. But I'm sorta rethinking that approach, because it's making me dislike the dog more rather than less, and my wife says I'll like it when it's not a puppy anymore because it'll be better. Like... I'm afraid of locking in negative feelings towards it when it's still in the state it's in, which could color my ability to like it when I'm better able to.
Should I continue to try and spend a lot of time with it, or should I just wait until it's of a form I'm more likely to connect with? If I do spend time, how can I be more effective at making myself like it? Like... How do people who like dogs do so? What's the best method or strategy likely to ensure success?