Woman hugging her dog, who is not enjoying it.
Credit: www.care2.com
If you love your dogs, you should hug them, right?
Wrong.
In an article published in Psychology Today, psychology professor and neuropsychological researcher Stanley Coren argues that most dogs are actually stressed out by hugs.
The study analyzed 250 Internet photos of people hugging their dogs, scanning for for known signs of anxiety in the dog, including turning their head away, showing the whites of the eyes and slicked back ears.
Coren’s data revealed that 82 percent of dogs in the photos showed at least one of those signs of stress. About 8 percent of dogs seemed happy with the hug and the remaining 10 percent appeared neutral or showed an ambiguous response toward the gesture. (emphasis added)
“Dogs are technically cursorial animals, which is a term that indicates that they are designed for swift running. That implies that in times of stress or threat the first line of defense that a […]
Dogs, like people, have very differing personalities. The dog we just got two months ago from a shelter, just loves hugs. He initiates the hug from us because he acts as though he never had anyone to love him and hug him, because he was found as a stray. I say this study is B.S.!