Programmed to Eat

When we first got our dog Shay Shay as a nine-week old puppy we were told to give her a treat after every successful visit outdoors to potty.  This training obviously worked because she never once had an accident inside.  I am sure that at sometime we should have stopped giving her the tiny square of freeze dried liver she loves the most every time she comes in from the outside, but here we are more than two years later still treating her after every visit to the great big potty that is the outdoors.

I think sometimes she asks to go out just to be able to come back in and have a treat.

She is a fairly thin dog who does not eat a huge amount of dog food, so I guess keeping up the treating is not too terrible for her.

I got to thinking about the expectation for getting food and wondering if she is actually hungry or just in the habit of getting a nibble no matter what.  I am a human who is equally programmed to eat.  I can’t tell you the last time I missed a meal — Breakfast, lunch and dinner, everyday, no mater what.

I know that my parents did the right thing by feeding me regularly as a baby and young child.  Do I think that has programmed me to expect food at those three meals at the very least? Meals are not the only times I eat.  I wonder if I had not been so programmed to expect food at such regular times that I might have learned to eat only when I was hungry?

If left to my own devices I might actually eat more often than the three meals and one snack that is part of my regular routine.  What if I were given a favorite food every time I performed some mundane task like clean out the dishwasher.  I might never do anything else.

Not eating can be just as much of a problem as eating too much — both are unhealthy.  I am much too old to be deprogrammed from three meals a day now.  Perhaps five little snacks would be better for me, or just two good meals.  I will never know.

What I do know is that my dog is very happy getting a liver treat when she comes back inside the house.  I am not about to be the one who is going to stop her routine as long as she continues to be a good dog and always do her business outside.

As for myself since I am going to continue sitting down to eat at the same times everyday I am going to do my best to think about every bite and decide if I am done before my plate is clean.  Just another ingrained habit — damn those starving children in China.