How lovely it is to adopt an older dog. Giving an orphan another chance in life creates a feeling inside like no other for both you and your new dog. Once you've got him home, you will learn a lot about each other. There is usually a honeymoon period where a dog presents his best paw forward. This can last a few days to several weeks. It depends on how long the dog takes to feel comfortable before he exerts his own personality, and perhaps start testing you and his boundaries. So it's a good idea from the beginning to set those boundaries between you and the newly adopted older dog. One of the best ways to do this is through a course of action called NILIF - Nothing in Life is Free. NILIF is a day-to-day training process that dog owners use to apply a stable structure for the dog to follow and get good things. Humans are the ones who control the good things. Dogs do best with boundaries and consistent rules, and getting good things has universal appeal. With the NILIF process, it's a win-win proposition, and it will give the dog owner skills to use when a dog tests his boundaries.

What will a dog do to test you? It may be something subtle, and seemingly innocuous at first, but if you let him build one leading behavior upon the other, you will be setting your relationship up to be lopsided, where the dog is holding the leash and you are wearing the collar.

Let's look at one universal behavior a dog uses to test his boundaries with humans and how to use it in the NILIF program. Seeking attention. You may think seeking attention is fine, but in dog's language, the rules to follow the good thing of getting attention are different than with humans. In the pack, the alpha dog decides who gets attention and when. When your dog seeks your attention, he is taking one step towards a leadership role. He sees your hand is not doing anything, or is doing something, but the dog doesn't care. He wants attention and comes under your hand with his muzzle and flips your hand up to signify "Gimme attention!" It's cute at first, and especially when a new dog interacts with us, we're happy and indulge. But down the line, this behavior can get irritating. So don't let it get to that point.

The best response in this case is to ignore the dog and his insistent snout. Be consistent. Do not indulge his wishes and do not react to him verbally. This may be difficult. The dog has had success after success with his snout flips in the past. Otherwise, he wouldn't do it. He's trained people well to give in when he wants attention, and suddenly, someone's not going along with his game. Be strong because the dog is sure to try harder and harder, if not this time, another time. Do not look at him, or talk to him. Remove your hand and ignore him. Turn away if you must. The reason behind a stoic response is even if you turn to him and say, "No, go go go go!" the dog will be getting attention from you, albeit the negative type. For some dogs, any attention is desirable, even if it's negative such as a scolding.

Eventually the dog will give up and walk away as long as you continue to ignore his attention-seeking advances. When the dog retreats, wait until he's walked some steps away, then call him back because now it's your idea, no longer his. Tell the dog to sit. When he does, pet him, play with him, treat him. Tell him he's the best dog there is! Praise should be lavish whenever your dog follows a pack rule.

The aim of this process with attention is to mold your dog so that when he wants attention, he will ask for it by sitting nicely - not by demanding it. This will require you, the dog owner, to be attentive to your dog as his behavior changes. You must now pay attention to his polite behavior, and give him good things when he plays by the rules of the leader, you!

The attention-seeking response is one important behavior to enforce in your dog's repertoire and it's the start to building a solid relationship with him. Training older dogs is easy with a step-by-step, rule-driven process like NILIF. Day by day, you will strengthen the bond between you and your dog when you use a program that is consistent, fair, and humane. So keep at it. The payoff is big!