Do you give your doodle human junk food?

[Sabrina and Bentley]

Ok, so Bentley is my first dog and my fiance (Allen) and I have had him for almost 6 months now.  I don't know anything about raising a dog so I turned to the internet to learn alot about what to feed him, how to train him, etc.  I took alot of pride in learning what I could to give Bentley the best life possible.  Allen has grown up with dogs (St Bernards and Great Danes) his entire life, so he has his own opinion on how to raise a dog, what to feed them, etc.  so that's the backstory. 

My question is, do you give your dog your junk food as a  treat every once in awhile?  I give him fruit, veggies and meat as treats sometimes.  Allen on the other hand gives him tortilla chips, the cookie part of an oreo, pieces of a muffin or cupcake, pretty much any sweet that he's eating because he's a sweets junkie.  Granted this is maybe every other day and it's only one piece, but when he does this, it's like nails on a chalkboard. Smoke starts coming out of my ear.  I'd say I don't know why it bothers me so much, but I think a part of it is so frustrating because I take care of Bentley 90% of the time.  I trained him to sit, stay, come.  I trained him to not play with his toys on the couch.  He's in puppy training right now because I've been unsuccessful with him jumping on people and pulling on his leash.  I work from home, so I play with him during the day.  He gets three walks during my work hours and Allen walks him before bed.  So I feel like Allen gets to benefit from all of my hard work with Bentley while he does nothing but play with him and give him junk food. Not to mention he doesn't discipline when he jumops on people because he thinks that's what dogs do.  We are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to raising Bentley which makes me translate to how it will be raising kids with him.  LOL!!  I laugh, but it's true.

I could totally be overanalyzing this, but I haven't let up and he doesn't plan to stop, so I figured I'd reach out to you guys for your opinion.  Do you think I'm being way too anal?  Bentley has never gotten sick from any of this, but I look at the long term and wonder if/how this will affect him.  This is free therapy, so thank you in advance!!!  :-)

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I'm sure they can taste the sugar/fats just like we do - we find high-fat, high-sugar foods appealing but that doesn't mean we should eat them!

The big thing here is that we have knowledge that eating these high fat foods is bad for us and can (eventually) kill us - a dog is just saying "OOH YUMMY!" and thinks it's amazing.

I told a student once that feeding her family dog a shot glass full of bacon fat every morning was REALLY not a good idea because of pancreatitis... scary.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

High sugar, high fat foods are actually an acquired taste. People who don't eat them don't crave them. It's the same with dogs.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Weird, I always thought it just had to do with our natural tendency to want to eat high calorie foods when they're available.  I always go back to the "when we were living in caves..." analogies

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Nope. The more you eat high fat, high sugar foods, the more you crave them, and vice versa. If you eliminate them from yopur diet, it takes about two weeks before you rarely want them, and in fact, when people who rarely eat high fat foods do eat them, them get sick...just like dogs. 

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

This according to my friend Wiki:

"Sugar and the taste of sweet stimulate the brain by activating beta endorphin receptor sites. These are the same chemicals activated by heroin and morphine.[7]

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yep. Certain foods cause chemical reactions in the body just like drugs do. The more you take the drug (or food), the more your body becomes dependent on it.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Ok so there is a little chemical "hit" from endorphins initially and if you encourage it the endorphin surge gets bigger and you get cravings when you don't have it.  Makes sense!

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

My dogs never had a cookie but they think baby carrots are the best thing on the earth!

[Ginny Nightingale]

I agree with someone who said this is a male thing--but maybe not just men but people who don't like rules or don't like to follow the rules of their spouse--not sure what I am trying to say, but I am sure there are other couples where it is the woman who does what she wants and the man gets angry--anyway, I find that my husband is terrible about following any rule I make about the dogs. I try to convince him that it is important to be consistent but he just goes his own way anyway.

For example, I try to get the dogs not to jump on people when they come in--I have methods for this (not 100% successful, but I am trying!) He does the opposite of what i want every time-and says he forgot....frankly, I think he gets a kick out of them misbehaving--it is fun for him--very aggravating!

By the way, my husband was the same way with the kids--you may want to work this out now before the kids come along!! ;) 

Has anyone mentioned sweets and teeth yet? Sugar can't be good for their teeth! If he really insists on keeping this up, maybe he could take a few pieces of dog biscuit or kibble with him when he has a snack and feed the dog that so that he feels like he is giving him something, but not junk food!

[Willow and J]

Yeap. Must be the male thing. I train Willow, DH un-trains her. I tell her "no jump", and he encourages her to jump on him when he comes home. It is a cute scene of daddy-daughter reunion, but she is 65lb., and I am always worried if she'd hurt herself. A relief is that Willow does not get totally un-trained. She doesn't jump on others like she does to her daddy.

My hubby grew up with a house rule that dogs are never allowed in the kitchen and diningroom. Dogs sneak in, of course, with those big sad eyes. And because he was so heartbroken by those eyes, when we got Willow, he wanted us to be less strict with table manners. He asked this so nicely (yes, with HIS sad eyes), so I had to agree. But I read things from DK about dangers of different kinds of food items, so he gives only good things such as fruits, vegetable, bits of meat and fish steaks (making sure they are inner parts that has not been salted.) Willow patiently sits beside him at the mealtime, and because I don't give her anything until the very end and only when I am done I award her for patiently waiting with a bit of her treats, she doesn't beg others when we have visitors. But I am not sure if this can be done for other dogs as well. Willow is VERY food motivated (we call her "pigdoodle"), but never counter surfs, and never touches our food on her own even when they are laid at easily reachable place. She only takes food that are offered to her. She's almost self-trained, and also adapts to each individual members of the house. 

Yes, I do translate my hubby's behavior to how it'd be to raise a child with him too, and he never hesitates to tell me that he'd be a spoiling daddy. I'm always the strict mom and DH is the sweetest spoiling dad, and Willow spends more time with DH on the walks and play sessions. But nonetheless, Willow's mommy's girl in the sense that her "base" is me. Isn't this interesting? 

DK is a good place to learn things from and threaten educate husbands about raising healthy dogs, I find. 

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

OMD, I just read your first paragraph about how DH un-trains Willow.  The jumping scene is identical to what goes on here.  Gracie loves to put her big huge floppy paws up on his shoulders and kiss him for 5 minutes and she is 70 lbs!  But, she is very gentle...as you said cute scene of daddy-daughter reunion!!!!

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Absolutely not!!!  We had a Lab that my DH gave all table scraps to and even bought him hamburgers when we did a drive thru at a burger place.  He was obnoxious and would sit with his head on the table drooling and begging.  When we would take him for a walk he would pull towards people who were sitting on the grass in parks having a picnic.  He would just go right in to their group and grab food.  I hated this behavior and told DH that if we ever were to get another dog in my lifetime it would be trained by me and never ever taste human food (other than her green beans we put in with her kibble for nice poops). I want my Doodle to be able to go anywhere I want and I never have to be embarrassed about her drooling for food.  She doesn't even surf or come to the table when we eat.  She just lays down somewhere and it might be under the table but she never ever begs.  Every now and then DH wants to give her something and we get in huge fights because he knows better and admits it but thinks she is going to love us more???  I don't think so!  Gracie Doodle loves us unconditionally and there is no doubt about it!!!  My DH is my worst nightmare when it comes to discipline, training and feeding a dog.  But, he is the first to admit that I did everything right and she is the perfect dog!!!