NILF

No, no, no – It’s not what you think!

It means “Nothing In Life is Free” and my dog is about to learn exactly what that means!  Now, I don’t mean “I’m going to show him who’s boss,” I have an overly sensitive dog and an “eh” is all that is needed to let him know he shouldn’t be doing something.  There will be no alpha rolling or choke collars.  He will just simply have to work for everything!  It’s for his own good!

It’s not his fault though and he is truly a GREAT dog, but I think the anxiety of all our moving is catching up to him.  I think having as much freedom as he did when life was simple has started to overwhelm him.

Last night was the very first night we spent in the house and Cole did very well.  But he’s surrounded by boxes and the last time he was surrounded by boxes we moved and went to an apartment in the city with lots of loud noises and unfamiliar territory.  Then he went to my parents house for three weeks while we worked on the house, traveled to a wedding and had to work a long weekend.  They spoil him ROTTEN!!!  So he came home thinking he was the center of the world and came back to another new place (although he’s been to the new house a few times before) and more boxes and he just doesn’t quite know what to do with himself.

This morning, I didn’t want him to have free run of the house.  While Cole is not crated anymore, he is crate trained and sometimes when he goes to others houses when we go away he is crated.  Having a lot of space in a strange, new place can just be too much for a dog!  Jon had crated him yesterday when he went to move the stuff out of our apartment and said he was fine, but when I went to put him in there today his blankets were soaked – meaning he had peed yesterday.  So I tried to barricade him in the living room, so he could just have the couch and his bed and I pretended to leave.  Two minutes of standing outside he freaked out and started howling (this dog never makes a peep!).  So I made the decision that for his safety and the safety of our new couch and house, he’d just have to be crated.  I changed the blankets and put him in.  I expect to come home to a mess again today.

Hopefully, putting him through the NILF regime will help him get structure and remember again that while HE thinks he knows what’s best, sometimes he doesn’t.

Basically – I’m going to re-crate train him and instill it back into his routine.  It’s not forever, just until he’s comfortable and feels like he has stability again.  It does not mean he gets any less attention!!!!  In fact, he’ll probably get more