Am I spoiling the dog?

[Feba]

Re: Am I spoiling the dog?

They have these peanut butter cookies for dogs by us and my son actually ate one.

Did anyone try those 'Scooby Snacks' they were selling a few years back? They were actually marketed as dog food... that you could eat, too! I'm sure they were delicious.

Dogs don't taste, they just consume, so I wonder if feeding my dog table scraps is even worth it.

You lucky son of a bitch.

I don't know about everyone else here, but I've had plenty of experience with dogs that refuse to eat things they don't like-- including my grandma's dog, who eventually stopped eating dog food entirely. Or worse yet, spending money on treats, only to have them bite it, sniff it a bit, and then leave it on the floor; wasting an entire box.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Am I spoiling the dog?

And even dogs that haven't been fed any human foods will tend to hover under a table when people are eating, because it smells like food. My cousin never fed her dog human foods and it still sat near the table when you ate wishing it could get something. But it never barked or even whined. Just sat there and gave you the 'I'm so pitiful, love me' eyes.

No those dogs were there because you let them be there. Dogs are like children, you need to teach them right from wrong. It's wrong for a dog to be under the masters table when he is eating. The dog shouldn't even be in the same room.

I don't know about everyone else here, but I've had plenty of experience with dogs that refuse to eat things they don't like-- including my grandma's dog, who eventually stopped eating dog food entirely. Or worse yet, spending money on treats, only to have them bite it, sniff it a bit, and then leave it on the floor; wasting an entire box.

My very first dog was a poodle named Winky. He had one eye and the other eye socket where the eye should have been would constantly "wink"....hence the name. (Hey I was a kid!) So Winky became one of those dogs of mine that would only eat people food. In fact, he was so bad that he would sit there and growl at you if you didn't feed him while you were eating. So whenever my stepfather would have vanilla ice cream at night, the dog had to have a bowl. My stepfather loved this one particular brand of vanilla ice cream and usually only ate that. But there were times that my mother couldn't get that brand and would buy something else. That dog would eat nothing but the brand my stepfather liked. He was an annoying little shit! LOL

When he was sick and the vet would give him little white pills to take, we'd put them in his ice cream. The dog would only eat the ice cream if it was softened and stirred up so it was nice and creamy. We'd put the pill in it and give it to him. That friggin dog knew EVERY TIME. When he got done, that little pill would be sitting right in the middle of that empty bowl and I swear he'd give you a "HA! I'm not that stupid!" look as he'd walk away.

[Feba]

Re: Am I spoiling the dog?

Heh. I hate how animals do that, although I can't blame them.

It's particularly annoying when you try to tranquilize a lynx that way, and they eat around it.


So you call a guy with a tranquilizer rifle...

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Am I spoiling the dog?

Heh. I hate how animals do that, although I can't blame them.

It's particularly annoying when you try to tranquilize a lynx that way, and they eat around it.


So you call a guy with a tranquilizer rifle...

Hmmm...maybe I should have gotten one of those.

[Vyuru]

Re: Am I spoiling the dog?

In general, I see nothing wrong with giving dogs or cats people food, within reason.

Now sure, each pet has their own personality and circumstances vary, so you'll get a wide range of responses on this subject.

As far as behavior goes, most of our critters are pretty good about it, although Dakota (my Mom's cat) and Ginger (my Mom's dog) tend to be a little bit more demanding at times. Nothing really bad like barking or whatever, but for instance Dakota will sit next to you and occasionally put his paw on top of your fork/knife hand and tug just a little, while Ginger tends to stare if she wants something. That pretty much only happens if we're sitting in the living room watching a movie as we eat though. If we're eating at the table the know to leave us be, although we've never really trained them that way.

As far as food goes, we'll give them most anything that isn't takeout or processed. So say, some broth from a chicken soup with a little bit of chicken/veggies, stew broth with a little bit of stuff in it, chicken/beef/lamb/whatever, veggies, Ginger likes baby carrots in particular. Dakota favors his tomato based foods, so he might get a little spaghetti sauce or chilli or something along those lines. He normally only gets to lick the bowl though in those cases.

Health wise, all of our animals are very healthy, some of them given the circumstances, and none are overweight nor have we ever had any weight issues except for Dakota. Every now and then he goes off his feed (old cat) and so we blend up some of his moist catfood really fine and force feed him with a syringe. Ginger is a King Charles Cavalier, and they typically have a heart problem, which she's had for the last, almost year or so now. So that's why I say some of them are healthy given the circumstances.

Ginger pretty much only eats people food now, because last summer when her heart condition first started she just stopped eating her dogfood, and we couldn't find any that she did like, nor were we really finding anything that was tasty to her and that was suitable for her given her condition. So since we didn't want to put her down we started feeding her people food, and since she was kinda in a bad way even that took a bit before she was really interested in it.


So IMO, nothing wrong with it if you do it right, but just don't go overboard with it. Heh, read about Tricky Woo in one of James Harriet's books for an example of that.

[Telera]

Re: Am I spoiling the dog?

No those dogs were there because you let them be there. Dogs are like children, you need to teach them right from wrong. It's wrong for a dog to be under the masters table when he is eating. The dog shouldn't even be in the same room.

I don't live in a super discipline world where you treat the dog like ... well, a mere animal. I've always raised them more like a psuedo-child, and I like it that way. I like companions, not uber trained androids.

I don't want these 'seen but not heard' animals. And if they're healthy and happy, then I don't care. They amuse me, and they're there to make my life better, not be prim and proper.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Am I spoiling the dog?

Most people don't take the time to eat healthy themselves so its highly unlikely they'll do so for their pets. Many people can't afford it either. Thats why there are so many obese people and pets nowadays. My aunt literally fed her dog to death. She started out with food for treats for tricks. I tried to talk her out of it but she insisted it wouldn't hurt. Next came the scraps from the table...."but he was sitting there so cute!" "he was a really good baby today!" "its Christmas and he deserves dinner too!" etc.

Well the dog started eating less and less of his dog food so her solution was to mix it with people food. Soon he'd actually pick out the pieces of dog food and put them on the floor!! So then it was all people food and my aunt is a widow and she is still supporting her 30+ yr old daughter (thats a whole other can of beans!) so she can't afford to eat very healthy herself. I started calling the dog a sausage dog. It was just this LOG with legs. Seriously.

She took it to the vet over and over and he told her the dog had high blood pressure and needed to lose weight. She'd try but the dog would refuse to eat and she'd panic. The dog died from it in the end. Her current dog is not as fat but still fat. She doesn't always feed it people food but she does at times. The dog is only 2 yrs old so I imagine she'll kill this one too.

I don't live in a super discipline world where you treat the dog like ... well, a mere animal. I've always raised them more like a psuedo-child, and I like it that way. I like companions, not uber trained androids.

I don't want these 'seen but not heard' animals. And if they're healthy and happy, then I don't care. They amuse me, and they're there to make my life better, not be prim and proper.

It has nothing to do with "super discipline" at all. Its just discipline. You don't let children walk all over you and you shouldn't let your pets either. You can't treat animals like you treat people, it just doesn't work that way because.....well.....they ARE animals. I have had pets all my life and also do currently. Neither of my pets are "seen but not heard from". Hell my cat wouldn't let that fly for 5 minutes! Neither would my dog! But do they listen? Yes, they know I'm the master and they know when I say "go" or "go lay down" when we sit down to eat that means go in the other room. I don't beat them, I don't yell, all I do is tell them. It has nothing to do with "prim and proper" and all to do with being a disciplined and well loved animal. Everyone that comes to my house always remarks how smart, friendly, and well behaved my animals are. It's because I care about them so I take the time to teach them. Love is teaching them and not letting them do whatever they want.

[Feba]

Re: Am I spoiling the dog?

Hmmm...maybe I should have gotten one of those.

What, for your husband?

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Am I spoiling the dog?

It would have multiple uses! With my luck, they'd use it on me though.

[dirtyclown]

Re: Am I spoiling the dog?

I've always fed my pets scraps when I didn't have any of their food. They were always fed from their dishes though, and were trained to pick up and leave the room when it was time for dinner so they never had an opportunity to beg.

I never tried giving them treats for tricks, because I've always felt that my pets did much cooler stuff without the incentive for treats.