Remember: you have a dog, not a baby

Written and verified by the lawyer Francisco María García

Last update: 27 December, 2022

We often confuse our dogs with children and treat them as if they were our babies. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t forget that we have them to love and to care for, but they are animals and should be treated as such. Don’t forget that you have a dog, not a baby.

The problem is that if we continue to treat them as if they were babies, they will indeed turn into spoiled “children.” And it will be our fault as their owners.

One sign that we’ve instilled bad habits in our dogs is if they need their owners to practically sing them a lullaby in order to fall asleep. They need their owner there with them, and sometimes even a pillow.

Many young couples decide not to have children and instead adopt a dog. Why? Among other things, a dog is less complicated than a child. You don’t carry him in your womb and a dog’s love is unconditional.

You have a dog, be careful of the parent-child relationship

Another consequence of having a parent-child relationship between an owner and their dog is separation anxiety. Dogs have a significantly shorter life than humans, and they’re also more vulnerable to different ailments and diseases. All of this may provoke pets to become dependent on their owners.

Dogs are very intelligent, but if they are too spoiled they’re not able to tolerate the absence of their owner. They then suffer from ailments like gastritis, colitis, sleeping problems, and lack of sociability.

According to different studies, a relationship in which the pet is humanized excessively is not a balanced relationship. It leads to behavior changes in the animal, including excessive aggression, fear, anxiety, or stress.

We project human characteristics onto cats and dogs, when they are not human. So if they come to table where we’re eating to beg for food, we usually give in. But he may not even be hungry; he just learned how to get what he wants.

The Bambi effect

The Bambi effect is the term for the tenderness that cats and dogs inspire in us out of their unassuming, sweet, helpless personality. When we see them like that, then it’s almost inevitable that we’ll treat puppies as if they were babies.

It’s important that we enforce the rules we set for them and maintain discipline. If we don’t, then we’ll just be confusing our pets. We won’t be helping them.

Overfeeding and dressing up your dog

Personifying your dog may mean that you overfeed him. Being overweight and obese are very dangerous things for your pets. Experts around the world have confirmed that giving your dog any food from the table is one way of humanizing him, and could end up causing heart and metabolic diseases of various kinds.

As far as clothes, protecting your dog from the weather is fine, whether it’s the cold or the rain, but dressing him in “stylish” clothes or costumes, with accessories more appropriate for us humans, is one way you personify him.

Other ways of humanizing your dog

Recently, we’ve been seeing a lot of this. We celebrate their birthdays, complete with a feast and big cake, we buy them trendy clothes, they sleep with us in bed and we even talk to them in baby talk.

Humanizing them seems to satisfy the needs of the owner, but not the needs of the animal. A dog or cat doesn’t need this type of attitude. We must not forget that they’re animals — very affectionate and deserving of our love — but they have their own nature and it’s not good to attribute human qualities to them.