There was a time not too long ago when my emotions and empathy convinced no over ruled my better judgment and I listened when they told me that the best thing to do for Pugsley given his age and cancer prognosis is to spoil him rotten for all the remaining days that I am blessed to have him in my life.

I was wrong.

Once again, it's a case where my heart got in the way of normal brain functions that know better. Damn I hate when that happens…..

But just look at this face and tell me how you could resist the same temptations? Let's just say that big brown eyes have always been a weakness of mine, then add on a curly pug tail and pink belly rolls and you have Trouble with a capital T.

At the time it all seemed so harmless and innocent. I mean, what’s the big deal if he gets bully sticks every week? What harm could it cause if I feed him first so he’s always eating before me? What could it possibly hurt if I leave him with his dog nanny (my mother) when I’m out so that she can spoil him rotten in my absence and he never has to be alone or want for any one thing….

Cut to a year and half later and we have one spoiled little pug monster on our hands.

Now he wants to be with his dog-nanny all the time. He totally snubs me unless she isn’t around to take care of him. I’ve been demoted to second fiddle position in the pack.

On those rare occasions when he is alone, even if it’s only while I’m in the shower I almost assuredly come home to find something mischievous he’s done to let me know that he was displeased at the lack of attention. Could be something as little as tissues taken out of the waist basket and torn to shreds or a puddle of pee on the floor even though he just peed an hour earlier so he clearly is only lifting his leg out of spite…

The other day I came out to find two paws up on the coffee table and his teeth sunken into a bag of sealed treats I had left there…he thought he’d just help himself.

Still, every sign of a possible new lump or look into his big brown eyes would be cause for more doting and more spoiling…

But then the relentless greed and lust for more began escalating to a whole new level..

Now if I go to heat up my food before him, he will bark at me demanding to be fed first….and even as I’m preparing his meals he stands at my feet and barks at me because I’m not moving fast enough for him…

Do any of your pugs do that or am I alone in this alpha power play asserting his dinner time dominance?

When he doesn’t have a bully stick to chew on he sits and stares me down with looks of disgust for hours which ultimately culminate into full on pug pouts or chin rests and loud sighs of disapproval when he finally gives up..

It was all so cute and endearing at first and I was resigned to the fact that despite all my best intentions, it seemed that whatever I did would never be good enough. And just when I thought he couldn’t possibly get any greedier….yesterday he went into the spare room where all the Christmas presents are wrapped, tagged, boxed, and bagged. Lo and behold while nobody was looking he took one of the gift bags off the couch and proceeded to unwrap it. Luckily it was nothing he could get hurt eating. It was kind of funny as crafty and cunning as I imagined him to be; sniveling off into the gift room, tip toeing so as not to be heard. Ears presumably laid back so his sense of hearing would be more keen and alert enough to hear anyone coming to catch him unwrap things….whomever said that dogs don't "think" or file things away in memory for later use have clearly never met MY dog. Oh he must of plotted and planned it carefully right down to the timing and detail of the heist like a scene from Oceans 11, there is no doubt in my mind...

And even after getting into trouble for the gift unwrapping incident... later that night he did it again to a different gift bag and this one was full of chocolate, which is toxic to dogs!!

I got smart then and gated off the door to the present room. Thought I had fixed him once and for all, but when he disappeared this morning I immediately ran over to the present room and saw to my horror that he had taken a big old dump on floor.... right next to the gate that was blocking him from getting into the room with all the Xmas gifts.

If all that weren’t bad enough when I rounded the hallway corner with a wad of paper towels to clean the mess....I could see that he was smack dab in the middle of trying to eat his own shit! In protest or out of spite, in a vengeful act to thwart my desperate teeth cleanings attempts to cure his bad breath, or maybe he was just plain trying to hide the evidence...I can’t be quite sure which was the motivating force to cause him to ingest his own crap…but something tells me it was yet another defiant act of spite, greed and malice.

And I know it’s all my fault. I've created the way he has become. Give a pug an inch and he will take a mile, is the lesson of the day.

The scary thing is that he doesn’t even reach his full holiday season greed potential until the Christmas tree goes up and the stockings are hung…I am sort of scared to see what mischief and antics ensue over the next 30 days.

I am open to suggestions on how to control this unruly behavior. Or is it just too late to teach an old [spoiled] dog new tricks?