Sometimes our emotions are hard to control, and we don't learn our lessons until it's too late!

When I married my husband, he had custody of his 4 daughters. 3 of them are grown and out of the house now. The 16-year old is still here. Twice, I slapped one of them. Often, I was emotionally abusive.

Then - I watched this commercial. It's so funny how a commercial changed my entire life. It was about how violence breeds violence and abusing somebody once can have ripple effects for years and years. It applied more to humans - about how children who are abused grow up to abuse their own children.

After that, whenever I'd even think of hitting somebody I'd get really weak. I couldn't ever do it again after that. I kept thinking "what I do could cause infinite harm!"

But - my change came late. It affected my relationship with that stepdaughter permanently. She might forgive, but she'll never forget.

I don't know if you have an anger problem or if this was just a one-time deal. But if you do have a problem with anger you need to tell yourself "I will break the cycle! I will not continue this!" You need to think about all the harm that abuse can do. Your dog might become fearful of people and bite somebody. That could cause the person bitten to dislike dogs and abuse them - then the dogs the person abuses could bite and the cycle would continue!

I hope it was just a one time deal. You're not a bad person - remember that. But the things you do can have lasting effects on people and animals you might never even meet.