My College Term Paper: Can a Dog Actually Make you Gain Weight?
My junior year in college I took a random communication class to satisfy a basic graduation requirement. It was a very odd and boring class most of those classes usually are that way which is why I waited till my senior year to do it. The professor was a real jerk. His name was Mr. Hodgkin’s and he was boring. He gave us a lot of busy work and he really was an unfair grader on most of our term papers. He had his favorites and needless to say I was not one of them. He gave us a college term paper assignment to debate an issue that completely contradicts the norm. One thing that he and I did have in common: we were both dog lovers. He talked about his overweight Shetland Sheepdogs like they were his babies. He too was a rather large man tipping the scales in the morbidly obese range. Every piece of research I had ever read told me that dogs make you thinner. They make you more active. You’re running with them, going for walks with them .They make you want to get out because they need to go out. That must not have been the case for Mr. Hodgkin’s. He was single no kids and all he had were his dogs. I thought I could make a pretty good case for this on my college term paper.
My cousin Stephanie has a little beagle named Robyn but she never exercises her. Her dog has been called obese many times by the vetinarian and Stephanie has been told to lessen her food and generally change her diet. It is said that every pound over a dog is to he’s/she’s ideal weight is one less year of life he/ she will live. My cousin is also very overweight and has been told the very same things that her vetinarian told her about her dog were told to her by her own primary care physician.
For my college term paper I focused on Stephanie but I really hope Professor Hodgkin’s who take it as a personal slam. Stephanie’s excuse was her dog hated going for walks and her dog also hated being left alone. Every single day that Stephanie left for work or to the grocery store her dog will flip out. Robyn would jump, nip and bark so loudly. She even would attack things that happen to get in the way: shoes, books, papers anything within the reach of her mouth would be torn to shreds
I began to do some analysis research on this idea for my college term paper. Some owners become so involved with their dog that they begin to close themselves off from the rest of the world. My term paper was full of examples of people who begin to isolate themselves from everything and everybody. They become so engrossed in their family pet that they just never want to leave them alone. This in particular was Stephanie’s problem. She just couldn’t go to the gym because she felt as though she was neglecting Robyn.
My college term paper was a hit with Professor Hodgkin’s. He told me how eye opening my research paper had been for him and he was really surprised that his dogs may not live a long live because of his own unhealthy choices. He vowed to start living a healthier life that day. I get e-mails from him now and then. He got himself and his dogs down to a healthy weight and I was very surprised that all this came from my term paper especially since my intention had just been to set him
