My name is Roxanne, and I hug my dogs … a lot. After learning how much dogs hate hugs, I’ve tried to stop, but it’s very hard.
Maybe we should form a support group.
In both her books “The Other End of the Leash” and “For the Love of a Dog,” behaviorist Patricia McConnell notes in several places that dogs don’t like to be hugged, saying they interpret the gesture “as a rude, domineering threat display.”
Most put up with it, but they don’t much like it.
Still … it’s really hard to stop.
McConnell also says: “Hugging is such an important part of expressing affection in
our species, it’s impossible for some people to imagine that their dogs don’t
necessarily like it. This is compounded by the fact that we can’t see the
expression on our dog’s face when we’re hugging her. If you can change
perspectives, and watch a dog’s face when someone else is doing the hugging,
you’ll get an entirely different picture. I have about fifty photographs of
people hugging dogs, in which the human is beaming and the dog is looking
miserable.”
Of course dogs don’t hug each other (except in play or while fighting) but there are lots of things our dogs have learned to tolerate for whatever reason.
All my dogs have learned to tolerate and even seek out hugging and kissing because I’ve taught them that if they tolerate that, it also gets them the stuff they do like such as scratching or just plain attention. Just like they love having their nails done because it’s rewarding for them.
Anything you pair with stuff they like–unless it hurts or scares them–is going to be at least tolerated if not downright enjoyed. It’s pure classical conditioning.
I just love the way the simple act of writing a book or presenting a seminar automatically makes a person a dog “expert”.
I have a photograph of myself hugging a very large chocolate lab. The look on my face is one of bliss. The look on his face reads, “Ew, girl cooties”!