Neurotic Nico

Okay, so this is our very sweet and loving doberman, Nico. She's 3, large, and still has a lot of puppy in her. She's also a bit neurotic. Case in point...she's afraid of our wood floors. Yes, you read that correctly, we have a dog that is afraid of our floor! I do however have to give her a little bit of credit on this one because until recently our floor had "speed bumps" (it was installed incorrectly and with the colder weather the boards expanded causing 2 medium and 1 extra large sized bumps).


I remember her coming around the corner of the kitchen island and tripping (her feet completely came out from under her and she landed on her side) on the largest bump, but it took us a day or so to connect that event with the fact that she wouldn't leave the carpet. More than once she found herself "trapped" in the living room or on the small patch of carpet behind our couch. No matter what I tried I couldn't get her to budge. I even tried a trail of dog treats leading to the "safe zones," but to no avail. I certainly wasn't going to try to physically move her! She'd have to wait for Mark to come home and rescue her...poor thing! After a few failed attempts at trying to lure her onto the floor, we tried the leash. It worked! Apparently she trusted us more than herself to steer her clear of the "speed bumps"!

The floors were fixed last week, the bumps are gone and we no longer need the leash! However, she still needs some nudging every now and then, and she definitely steers clear of the area where the bumps were. We can only hope that someday she'll be completely over her fear of the floor!

The boys and "Wacko" (Will's pronunciation of Nico)