Mike’s Doghouse

It is a harsh reality but it is something that is necessary, and, for some dogs, it is vital.

The Nothing in Life Is Free (NILIF) principal is simple: the dog gets nothing without first doing something to earn it. Some dog trainers say that toys should never be left laying around. That they should be taken up whenever a dog is not playing with it. When the dog is doing something you want to encourage, it gets the paycheck of getting a toy. If a dog has all the food it wants (free-feeding) all the toys it wants, why should it listen to you? All you do is place demands. Take up the toys, switch to two meals a day, and start placing tasks before a toy or meal is given, and the dog figures out what is going on.

Some say this is the positive reinforcements way of dealing with the “Alpha Dog” theory. I believe this is true. We can’t speak dog so doing posturing and positioning like a dog would do isn’t really the same. But, by teaching the dog that everything good comes from you, that makes you the leader.

Mike has been taught to sit before he gets his meal. He also has a set place he is to sit and remain, even when the other dogs are moving about, he is to remain there. Even when the food is put down, he cannot have it until he is released. We don’t have many toys down for him because Sam tends to de-stuff everything. We take up the high-value things like the chew toys. Mike gets these when he goes into his crate. He enjoys them more because, to him, they are something new and special. I have a toy we use as the jackpot toy during and after training sessions. He only gets to play with the toy then. I tried using toys he considered cool at home and he could care less when at dog class. So I got something new that had all his fave things on it: a ball that squeaked, a rope to tug/gnaw, and flappy things to grab. I know that if I were to let him have this toy at home, he’d not care for it anymore during training.

I had learned of this method during the classes Mike and I took for Puppy Class and Basic Manners I. I also read about it at the Rottweiler.net forum. I like how it works, how it puts the human in charge without any wrestling or other weird human-trying-to-be-dog stuff.