After Reading This You'll Probably Stop Hugging Your Dog!

#1

While studies suggest that hugging your dog is a sure fire way to reduce your stress and cut anxiety. In fact, it's been shown many times that petting your pooch is one of the best forms of stress relief, lowering blood pressure and increasing levels of the hormone oxytocin.

#2

But have you ever asked yourself what impact that hug has on your dog? Our guess is, probably never! We surely know that there are many people who hate hugs. Just like we never force these people into a hug, we should do the same to our dogs.

#3

Expert professors of psychology have analyzed 250 randomly selected photos of humans giving dogs a squeeze. By looking at their behavior in the picture, he determined that the vast number of pooches appeared to look uncomfortable, and were probably stressed by the situation.

In this case, it is advised to monitor your dog's reactions during a hug. While dogs are very patient, specially with their guardians, there might come a time where they can't take it anymore.

#4 The signs include:

Baring its teeth and licking its lips, to simply avoiding eye contact and folding down its ears. According to Coren, this shows that the dog is anxious and are clear signs of distress.

The researcher classified the pictures in 3 categories: if the pets were showing one or more of these signs, the dog looked relaxed and happy, or if its response was neutral or ambiguous. From this, he found that 81.6 percent of dogs were giving off at least one sign of discomfort, and only 7.6 percent of them seemed to be enjoying it.