Most of us have sat at our desired place of comfort, with our treat of choice, only to look down at those cute little furry animals that we love as they look back at us with those big eyes full of of hope and expectation. I'm weak, I give in sometimes and break off a piece of my arrowroot baby cookie (Don't judge me) and feed it to my little animal. (dogs in my case). I don't mind doing it but I am careful not to feed them something that is not good for them such as almond or chocolate and I don't do it all the time. When is it too much? When I see an animal that is clearly overweight or starts begging aggressively its time to stop that sort of behavior or abuse. It IS abuse, if are constantly giving your pet treats all day and they can barely walk because of it, it means you are doing some serious damage to that animal and they don't know any better but you do or you should. I've heard the excuses, But they love it, but I love them so much, it doesn't harm them. Let me say that this problem isn't just with pets but with children too.
Why do you spoil your pet or child? Claiming that its out of love is a weak and poor excuse, I think the real reason is because it brings you joy and makes you feel good, perhaps more than the person or animal that you are spoiling. It is true that doing the right thing is harder than not doing it, and it is easier to just give in than it is to set boundaries and enforce them. The little people and pets in our lives deserve to have those boundaries put in place because they don't know any better and we as adults do. The results of spoiling a child are far worse than any animal as well as it develops right into their adult life. So the next time your child or pet looks up at you with those big beautiful eyes of theirs don't give in, instead play a game with them, get them moving, turn it into something fun because I'm sure there is a healthy way to spoil your loved ones that doesn't involve food. The only problem now would be to get your lazy spoiled butt off the couch to do it.
Thanks
Scott Goerz
