Supposedly it gives them anxiety or something, but what about our feelings?
You know when you pick up your dog's back legs and push them around like a wheelbarrow? And they look back at you like, "What the fuck, man?" and try as hard as they can to get away?
Well, you're basically doing the exact same thing to them when you give them a hug. This whole time, you've been projecting your desire for closeness and affection onto your poor dog, and you've been ruining their lives.
This dog is in the depths of hell.
As Stanley Coren explains in Psychology Today, it seems very likely that when we hug a dog, we’re actually raising its levels of anxiety and stress, just because we're selfish assholes who think dogs wanna get hugs like humans do.
Coren explains that there are subtle indicators that a dog is stressed and anxious, such as turning away their head from whatever’s bothering them, showing the white edges of their eyes, or lowering their ears by the side of their head. Even licking their lips or the hugger’s face can be signs of anxiety. So no, your dog is not reciprocating your love by giving your cheek "kisses." They’re asking to be let go.
Basically, licking is your dog's way of wanting to bite you, but still being nice about it.
Coren looked through a random sample of 250 photos of dogs being hugged to see if he could spot any of these signs of distress.
Get ready for the sad part. In 81.6 percent of the photos, the dog being hugged was showing at least one sign of stress and anxiety. Which means that the majority of dogs don’t like hugs one bit. We’ve been blind to their unhappiness all along.
God, you're really a jerk to that poor animal, huh?
Moral of the story — give that little poop factory a pat on the head instead of a soul-crushing hug next time.
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