What I learnt from my dog about treats
Dogs are often enticed to behave using treats. However, they are equally happy to take the treat even if they haven’t done anything to ‘deserve’ it.
As one fellow dog-owner said as he dished out one such treat to my enthusiastic dog, “it’s not a treat, if there is more than one”.
This idea makes me wonder if sometimes we can fall into the habit of treats rather than using them just to reward ourselves. We can often feel that we ‘deserve’ something ‘forbidden’ like chocolate or a glass of wine, if we have had a hard day or just to comfort ourselves if we are feeling low or ill.
Sweet food activates the brain’s reward system but it can also drive addiction and so lead to overeating. Activating this pathway creates a connection between the activity and the feelings of pleasure, which increases the likelihood of repeating that behaviour.
Perhaps we seek that reward if there is little other sources of pleasure in our lives. Maybe food fulfills a void that we have that we are not receiving elsewhere, so we seek to nourish ourselves with food.
But do treats stop being treats when they become a regular habit or part of our daily routine? Sometimes treats are linked to some particular activity and eating them becomes a pattern of behaviour.
The association my dog has with going for a walk or coming back when I call her, is that she will get a treat. How often do we start doing something, like eating something sweet at a particular time of day or having a glass of wine when the kids go to bed, for it to become ingrained, even when the association is no longer there?
I wasn’t allowed sweets as a child, so the allure of something forbidden heightens the reward. Also reflecting back, I realised that relatives gave us sweets surreptitiously at times of sadness in our lives. So perhaps when I am feeling low, it’s understandable that I look for sugary food.
Being aware of these habits might not stop me reaching for the biscuit tin, but perhaps I can tell myself that it’s not really a treat if I eat more than one!
