Please try and keep this thread on-topic folks. Thanks.
Kb - I can appreciate your excitement that something you did paid almost instant dividends. We all have our own way of doing things, picking and choosing bits from various methods - so aren't always going to agree on everything.
Although I use certain aspects of NILIF I don't follow the bit advising to ignore any attempts from my dogs to initiate attention - although I won't put up with constant mithering from them either. ( They start pestering me for an hour before their tea and I ignore them completely, no eye contact and no words.) They are of an age now whereby they don't tend to harrass me anymore other than at mealtimes, they've gradually learnt that it's a waste of time. Sometimes they come up and they'll get a stroke etc, sometimes they won't, if I'm busy ( similar to what Happydog described). I love the fact that my dogs will come upto me occassionally wagging their tales and put their heads on my knee, and if I'm not otherwise engaged with something else then I will stroke them. I know this doesn't sound like the usual advice for consistency but it's worked for my two. I wouldn't say that what you did was wrong - it works for many people - but I would be wary of taking the ignoring too far though ( eg he Jan Fennell method, which starts off with a 24 hour long ignore
) as it can have a detrimental effect on some dogs. NILIF does make good sense though and the getting the dog to sit and wait before getting the lead put on, being fed etc does start to have a big impact on dogs.
And yes, you are right about Cockers being too smart for their own good sometimes. They are making fools of the lot of us.
