To Hug or Not to Hug…

Most of us who have dogs love the idea of giving them lots of hugs and kisses, and we love receiving them in return.  I’ve even signed off on some of my blog posts by saying “Hugs to the Pooches”.  But do the dogs really enjoy it? Well, in my humble opinion, it depends on the dog.  In other opinions the short answer is no!

Like people, dogs are all individuals with their own temperaments and personalities, and they should be treated as such.  We should all do our best to socialize and expose our dogs to different things, starting at a young age and continuing as they get older.

We humans sometimes push our own ideas on dogs without fully analyzing how the dogs are reacting.  We might confuse “he loves it” with “he’s tolerating it”.  We love to hug our dogs.  It makes us feel good.  We love the thought that our dog loves to be hugged, therefore we assume it is so.  Dogs will usually give us subtle cues through body language, eye changes, breathing changes and more, as to how they are feeling.  But sometimes we ignore those cues because WE want something so much.

Some dogs like to be hugged.   Others will tolerate hugs and kisses from his own family but not from others.  Most dogs (82% according to one recent study) experience stress while being hugged!  If a dog doesn’t enjoy it or want it and we push too hard we could have disastrous consequences.

Hindsight is 20/20, but there is no worse feeling than pushing a dog past his limit to biting when it could’ve been avoided.  The coulda woulda shouldas are horrible feelings to have.

So, do your best and consider how your dog may “feel about” or interpret a situation.  Some dogs love to be loved (physically), while others may not.  I’ve had clients tell me that they wish their dog was more affectionate.  It doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with the dog.  Maybe you were meant to have that particular dog to learn a thing or two (as hopefully we do from EVERY dog we share our lives with!).

As I’ve said to many clients, we should not try to make our dogs perfect robots.  We should try to help them be the best that they can be!  And if your dog doesn’t like hugs try to find alternatives.  Gentle petting with soft spoken words is a great start!

Stacie & Ronan