punishing

We have started punishing Sam. She throws her food on the floor and loves to watch the dog run in to eat it up. I hate that she does this and want to break her of it soon. So, we have started to scold her and slap her hand when she does it. The funny part is that Chris has a harder time with this than I do; which is the opposite from what we were expecting.
When we first got our dog Polly I could not punish her for anything. I spoiled her horribly, never yelled and never punished her. I hated putting her in her crate and was really bad at being authoritative with her. Chris and I have joked since Polly was little that when we had kids he was going to have to be the one that punished. That I would just say things like "You just wait till your father gets home!". But apparently I am better at punishing my child than I am at punishing my dog! I have mastered the hand slap. After only a few short days of sternly saying "Samantha we DO NOT throw food on the floor" and slapping her hand the amount of food that gets fed to the dog has drastically decreased! I am thrilled with the success but sad that my little baby has to start learning lessons and being told no. I have realized that once this begins there will only be more and more reasons for her to be punished (and if she turns out anything like me we are in for a long haul!). I think I will try to savor these days when it is just throwing food on the floor.