Looking around at my humans, I can see that they love to hug each other. When they hug, it makes my heart feel full. Their smiles across their faces make my tail go crazy.
Sometimes my humans will hug me. Now, I know deep down that they mean well by doing this but it does make me feel a little uncomfortable.
Thankfully, I know my humans would never hurt me. They are doing this to make me feel good. But they don’t know that in the dog world, we don’t hug each other. We just sniff each other’s butts to say hello!
You may be asking why do I stay around and tolerate my humans hugging me. Well, usually when someone does this, it means that we need to stay still. We see a hug as a restraint or sometimes even pressure.
Due to this, us dogs will do one of the following: fight or flight. Some of us will try to back away from your arms, so don’t take any offense!
On the other hand, some will stay put and endure your hug. I personally do this! This is because we understand that you mean no harm. We trust you.
Some dogs do not enjoy a hug at all though. Some may get too stressed and want to break free. If they can’t get free, they may end up showing you their teeth and possibly biting. They don’t mean to do this, they’re just scared!
Be mindful if you’re thinking about hugging your dog. Think about how good your relationship is. Keep this in mind when small humans run over to hug your dog too. We really don’t want to hurt a small human. They seem to cry a lot…
Why do dogs hug with their arms?
Now, you may have caught us off guard here. Sometimes when we stretch our arms out, our humans think we’re hugging them… Like real humans do, with our arms. This is simply not the case.
Unfortunately, we do not hug with our arms. Sorry to disappoint all humans out there! We actually hug with our eyes.
Making eye contact with us for a long period of time increased our oxytocin levels. This is also known as the love hormone. Eye contact with our humans makes us feel all warm and cozy inside. Just like a hug makes a human feel!
If you happen to catch us looking at you, just know that we trust and love you. We cannot see life without you in it! We’re truly relationship goals.
Next time you stumble upon your dog staring at you, stare back! Make eye contact! It will make us feel loved. Us dogs love being loved!
Can I give my dog a hug?
I know there are some of you humans out there that want to show us love with your pats. Nothing is stopping you from hugging us. But take into consideration how it makes us feel.
Do you want to make us feel restricted? Instead, you can cuddle us. We love cuddling our humans.
Usually, we will seek you out when we want some extra attention. The lucky dogs out there even get to share a bed with their human! I do not get this luxury, unfortunately…
Next time your furry friend comes over to you, give them a stroke. If they jump up on the couch with you, let them rest their head on your shoulders. They will love it. I kinda want my human now!
Key things to remember here are no tight squeezing and no bear hugs. We just want to snuggle into you on the sofa for head pats and snoozes.
Do dogs react to hugs?
To be honest, it completely depends on the dog and their relationship with the human hugging them. If you have a close relationship and trust each other, like me and my human, then they’ll most likely put up with your hug. They won’t love it though.
If you have a new dog that you haven’t bonded with just yet, you may want to be careful. This is especially true if you have a rescue dog. Those guys have been through a lot in life and it takes them a lot longer to trust their new forever home.
Be careful to read your dog’s body language before committing to a hug. If they don’t look like they want to, don’t. It is that simple!
If you really want to hug your dog, maybe start teaching them to trust you. You can do this by practicing recall and other tricks at home or the dog park. Reward us with treats, please. Any treats will do but we love chicken.
Why do dogs huddle together?
This may seem like a hug in the dog world, but it’s not. Usually, if dogs off-leash huddle together, it means that we are protecting each other from danger.
This could be another aggressive dog or an unknown human. For you humans to understand, there’s safety in numbers. We stand together shoulder to shoulder to prevent any of our furry pals from getting hurt.
Just like a hug, the feeling of our shoulders leaning against each other warns us that there is something wrong. This will trigger our fight or flight response, just like a hug with our humans would.
It may put us on high alert. So, be careful if you are walking towards a group of fellow dogs huddled together.
Some may just stand their ground, however, others may attack. They’re just afraid and need some extra help with their training.
Summary
I hope I have been able to help you with today’s post. I’m looking forward to sharing more of my dog knowledge with all of you humans out there.
Remember to not give tight hugs as it makes us feel constrained. You can give us cuddles on the couch any day of the week though! As always, feed us more treats too!
