Are We To Smile Only On Cue?

The best things in life are free.

A couple of months ago our esteemed editor asked us all to blog about NILIF (Nothing In Life Is Free) — The concept is as simple as it is effective. Deny your dog nothing; merely ask your dog to say, “please” beforehand. For example, ask your dog to sit before every enjoyable doggy activity. Ask your dog to sit before putting him on leash for a walk, before you let him out the back door, before you let him off leash for a romp in the park, before you throw his tennis ball, before you play tug, before couch-time and tummy rubs, and of course, ask him to sit for his supper.

In no time at all, your dog is only too happy to sit when requested — However, the more I thought about NILIF (which is indeed a wonderful and effective training technique for dogs, children and spouses), I realized that all the priceless things in life are, in fact, free: friendship, companionship, conversation, laughter, health and happiness to name but a few.

Walking our dogs, hugging our dogs, watching them play, watching them watch us, to name a few more. And chatting to our dogs and playing with our dogs, i.e., training our dogs, to name even more. Perhaps with more conversation and laughter in dog training, we wouldn’t need NILIF… our dogs would be only too happy to oblige.