Physician, heal thyself.

Or, at least, take thine own advice.

Don't you hate to hear, "I told you so?" Especially when you hear it from yourself?

Early this month I had to pay for not taking my own advice when one of our sons, our daughter-in-law and precious grandchildren came for the annual Granny Birthday Visit.

Our grandchildren are ages 4 and 2, but ever since there was only one and she was just old enough to spill food from her high chair, I've given her parents the same lecture I repeat several times a day to pet owners in my practice: "When the kids are eating, the dogs and cats need to be eating, too, set apart in another room. When the children's meal is over, give the floor a quick sweep before the pets are released, to prevent feeding people food to the pets."

This lecture takes on special significance for one of our granddogs, who has food allergies. And inhalant allergy. And flea bite allergy. And skin infections and ear infections and, well, you get the idea. He's a sweet, lovable dermatologic nightmare. (Our grandcat, Edie, and our other granddog, Bogie, on the other hand, show good judgment and have total disdain for all people food. People laps, on the other hand, are a good thing.)

We never gave it a second thought when we let our poodle, Pearl, stay out and run around at mealtimes on this visit. We've never fed her people food, and she's never had that disgusting, appetite-ruining habit of begging at the table.

Until the kids began to eat and, as kids will, spill food around the room. Pearl turned into Oreck and began to Hoover every crumb that fell. She was a Bissell in a feeding frenzy and acted like she'd never seen food on the floor before.

Because she hadn't.

That's when it hit us that this was the grandchildren's first visit since we lost our precious Peyton. Peyton and Pearl are the pets of empty nesters. They didn't grow up around our children, and, because our grandchildren live 600 miles away, the dogs never saw much of them. Unlike Pearl, Peyton wasn't easygoing, didn't tolerate the quick, loud, jerky movements of children, and both dogs usually got a vacation at the clinic hotel when the kids came. With Peyton no longer a threat to the children, Pearl had free run of the house during their visit, and she found herself making the most of it. Plus, she had two new best friends to feed her.

After the kids' visit was over, we realized a monster had been created, and what had been a perfectly well-behaved little lady at mealtime was now a full-fledged beggar. She missed her best friends' generosity.

The good news is, she got past it by us ignoring her at mealtime until she realized the "free lunch" was over, at least until the next time the babies come to visit.

So, learn from my mistake, if not from my lecture. Kids eat in one room, pets in another.

And this rule is never more important than when a puppy is young and establishing eating habits, good or bad, that will last a lifetime.