Never Get Too Comfortable!!

Well, lets see. For years i've been incredibly strict with who does what with Winston, and when. The more people that are "in his life" so to speak the harder, theoretically, it is for him and I to have a solid bond. The line is fine on how much to regulate and the one thing I have always been caught up on is this: When Winston is told "nurse" it is because I need help, pretty quickly. 9 times out of 10 I am in pain and need repositioned. When the person comes in, the first thing I have them do is "treat Winston". Now, there is a Rubbermaid container that I store Winnies food in, everyone is told either a big hand full or a small hand full with verbal praise. This is probably done twice per nurse shift, so even new nurses get the idea quickly. Now, i've been torn because if I follow the rules strictly, I should, by all means, have the nurse bring the food over to me, and then I would give it to him myself. I'm not going to lie, it's laziness that causes me to have my nurses treat him while i'm asleep/in bed. Anyway, I paid for it. I've got this nurse that has continually made comments about how he looks too thin and has been pushy and said things like "Are you sure that you fed him this morning?" Yes, I'm positive that my Labrador would never let me forget to feed him. So, Monday morning I have him "nurse" and when she comes in, I remind her to "treat Winston". Now, this is probably her, i'd say 6th or 7th shift so i'm pretty confident that she knew what to do. She didn't understand what I said and I had to repeat myself a few times. I ended up saying "I need you to give Winston a few pieces of dog food as a reward for getting you." The next thing I know...[Disclaimer: If you are anything like me in a training SD/handler aspect you may want to brace yourself, or sit down. I hear his measuring cup scoop out food and before I could say anything, she DUMPS IT INTO HIS BOWL AND WINSTON STARTS EATING!!!! I pulled my covers down and closed my eyes and said "Please tell me you did NOT just feed him!!!!!!!!!" She continued to rant that I said to do it. Well, whatever, it happened, I put it behind me and continued on. WRONG IDEA. I should have went over board in attention to him. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, hoping it wouldn't matter. Lets see, since then Winston has refused his leave its (small things, and big - went upstairs and ate the cat food!!) Broken a ton of stays (which were going so well!) and opted to watch whoever else is around when I give him basic commands before follows through. So, today, we've got some great treats and we'll be spending lots of time together going "back to the basics".

Lesson Learned - You can never be too thorough or strict with people and your SD.