SHOULD YOU HUG YOUR DOG? NEW RESEARCH JUST IN
January 4, 2018 by Jamie S.
We all love our fur babies and we want to show them that love and affection. But how we are showing our love may be doing more harm than good according to one expert.
Dr. Stanley Coren PhD. is a professor emeritus in psychology at the University of British Columbia. He recently wrote in a Psychology Today blog post that hugging dogs can actually increase their stress level.
Dr. Coren notes, “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 dog uses is not his teeth, but rather his ability to run away. Behaviorists believe that depriving a dog of that course of action by immobilizing him with a hug can increase his stress level and, if the dog’s anxiety becomes significantly intense, he may bite.”
As the basis for his study, Dr. Coren sampled 250 pictures from sources such as Flikr and Google image search. He tried to keep the data as precise as possible, eliminating pictures taken in situations where stress levels might be inevitably high.
Each picture was given one of three possible ratings:
- One could judge that the dog was showing one or more signs of stress or anxiety;
- One could judge that the dog appeared to be relaxed and at ease;
- One could decide that the dog’s response was ambiguous or neutral.
His conclusion after poring through online photos was that he saw pictures of happy people hugging unhappy dogs. His findings were that 81.6% of the photos showed dogs giving off some sign of discomfort, anxiety or stress and only 7.6% showed dogs that appeared comfortable while being hugged. The remaining 10.8% of photos showed a neutral appearance/indifference to being hugged.
So what were the signs of stress in the photos according to Dr. Coren?
“The most common sign of anxiety is when the dog turns his head away from whatever is bothering or worrying him, sometimes also closing his eyes, at least partially. When a dog opens its eyes wide and you can see the whites in a “half-moon” shape, that’s another sign. Other indicators of stress are when the dog’s ears are low and against its head, lip licking, yawning or raising a paw.”
So what does this mean for those of us who hug our dogs? Some experts have a different view than Dr. Coren.
Dog trainer Corey Cohen told the New York Times, “My dogs love being hugged.” Cohen also noted that the dogs in the pictures Dr. Coren used for his study may have been nervous because they were being posed for a picture.
Dr. Marc Bekoff is a professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He says it’s ok to hug your dog…sometimes.
“Just like people, some dogs love it, some sort of like it, and some may not like the close contact at all,” Bekoff writes in a response, also on Psychology Today’s website.
It’s important to consider factors like how well a dog knows you and how noisy the environment is. “And, if you’re unsure, don’t hug the dog! Better safe than sorry,” he writes.
After seeing Dr. Coren’s article, a few dog huggers decided to respond…
In the end, some experts believe that dogs should never be hugged…that a pat on the head, a treat, or a word of praise is a more appropriate way to show affection. On the other hand, some experts believe that hugging is just fine, taking into account the dog’s personality and what they like…noting that all dogs are different.
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