Are spoiled dogs happy?

In a nutshell, when we spoil our dogs, we set them up for all sorts of behavior problems and emotional discord.  The biggest one is separation anxiety.  But, there are other very unfavorable behaviors such as possession aggression and even dominance aggression.  All become very difficult to reverse once the dog begins this slippery slope.

Years and years ago, I knew someone that had adopted a wonderful Golden mix.  He was sweet, good natured, and easy with other dogs, and already had some nice obedience skills. Within a week, this dog began to control  the sofa.  If the owner went near the sofa while he was on it, he would bare his teeth and growl at her.  Occasionally, he would snap at her.  Next, he moved to the bedroom and claimed the bed.  Soon, he no longer would come when he was called. Afraid she would befriend him if she said, “No!” at the first incident, the possessive aggressive behavior escalated very quickly. Because he was a rescue, she felt sorry for him and gave him anything he wanted, including access to the furniture, food, and going outside with no confinement, and so on. Eventually, the dog ran away, nowhere to be found.  The moral of this story is that the spoiled dog is not going to love or respect you more. 

She decided she needed an easier dog so she adopted a darling little poodle mix.  This dog already had all sorts of obedience skills and tricks from her previous owners that had died.  Feeling sorry for her, the owner had placed bowls of dog food all over the house because, “she likes to eat here.”  And every bowl had a different food because… well you get the story.  Very quickly the dog became obsessed with the owner and could no longer be left alone without tearing her front teeth out on the crate door.  The crate, by the way, was a place the dog had loved to go before.  The owner now had to hire a dog sitter even if she had to go to the store. The dog could NEVER be left alone. The moral of this story is that a spoiled dog can quickly become a nightmare to live with making the dog and the owner miserable AND costing way more money than ever expected!

It is no crime to treat dogs like dogs.  No matter how much we love them, when we treat them like “dogs” then we HONOR them for who they are…dogs.   When we treat dogs like babies, we start down that slippery slope of unhappiness, neurotic behavior and even dangerous if not life threatening behaviors.

Dogs need boundaries and rules. They need leadership. Dogs need to be dogs to be happy and well adjusted. When we honor our dogs as dogs, we develop a loving and respectful, joyous relationship!  Dogs are so valuable to enriching our lives, we need to enrich their lives in return by understanding the wonderful species that they are!

Caption:  “Licking your plate clean are not only bad manners, but this sort of behavior can lead to other more difficult behaviors to deal with.”