Hugging Your Dog Stresses it Out

[MikePal]

I don't think dogs like this guy very much or he hasn't been around dogs much in a home environment because every dog we have ever had, loved to hug. They often initiate it by burying their heads into you lap when your sitting on the couch.

Another good example of one of those "behavioral' specialists not really have a clue about dog behaviour

He argues by eliminating a dog’s ability to defend itself by running away will cause an increase in its overall level of anxiety, possibly leading to biting or lashing out if it becomes stressed out enough. He also doesn’t blame pet owners, but feels the problem lies more in many people’s inability to correctly read animal facial expressions for signs of stress.

For anyone who would still like to show a little love to their four-legged friend, Coren instead suggests a kind word and a good pat on the head is enough for your dog to know he’s being appreciated.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...461.html?nhp=1

[smallgamer]

My dogs love hugs and come running for them. Don't need an expert opinion on that.

[werner.reiche]

Really weird article. Maybe his dog doesn't like him?

[welsh]

It's Stanley Coren. He's not a behavioural researcher. Just a guy who writes a column about dogs, and who is often misinformed. His "study" is not a study: it uses a non-random sample and incorrect methods, and is published in a popular magazine. (This is the same guy who's responsible for the widely distributed scale of intelligence of various breeds, which is nonsense.)

Dogs that show strong attachment to their owners will seek out physical contact. But dogs that are not strongly attached to a person may find hugs stressful. Kids should be taught not to hug dogs for this reason.

My dog likes hugs.

[Species8472]

My coon hound does not like to be touched except at night he loves to lay on his back on the couch with his head in your lap and have his belly and throat rubbed.

[terrym]

Actually my dog doesn't like hugs. He will walk away and then come right back sit down and lean on you but doesnt like hugs. This dog is at my feet at all times when im home and sleeps in the bed with us. Drives the girls nuts as they love to hug him but no I would not say he is a "hugger". And he is beyond attached and devoted to us. Sometimes I think too attached.

[MikePal]

It's Stanley Coren. He's not a behavioural researcher. Just a guy who writes a column about dogs, and who is often misinformed.

Ha ha...I think he's more than "just a guy"..

Stanley Coren, PhD., DSc., FRSC, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Pennsylvania and his doctorate in Psychology is from Stanford University. He is best known to the public for his popular books on dogs and on general psychological issues, however within the scientific world he is also a highly respected scientist having done research in a wide range of psychological areas including sensory processes (vision and hearing), neuropsychology (handedness, sleep, birth stress effects and behavior genetics) and cognition (information processing and intelligence). He has published over 400 scientific reports in professional journals as well as 19 books for students and professionals. He has received many honors and awards for his scientific work, has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was named as one of the 2000 outstanding scientists of the Twentieth Century by the International Biographical Society. He was also awarded the honorary degree of DSc by Guelph University fo his scientific and other contributions.

His engaging writing style has made his books for general audiences extremely popular. All of these books, including "The Intelligence of Dogs," "How to Speak Dog," "Why We Love the Dogs We Dog," "The Pawprints of History," "Why Does My Dog Act That Way," "How Dogs Think" and "The Modern Dog." have reached bestseller status. His recent his book for children, "Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses?" received the Animal Behavior Society's award for the best "Children's book of the Year" and also the Red Cedar Award for best children's informational book. His book, "Born to Bark" won the Maxwell Medal of Excellence from the Dog Writers Association of America. He has also received the Writer of the Year award, from the International Positive Dog Training Association, for his most recent works.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/stanley-coren-phd-frsc

But I do agree he does seem to be off the mark with this article.

[welsh]

Well, he is a highly qualified guy ... but he's still just a guy.

My point is, dogs are not his professional field. It's something he writes about on the side for popular magazines. So when he writes something bogus (like his breed intelligence scale: http://petrix.com/dogint/intelligence.html), we shouldn't take it as a sign that researchers who do actually specialize in this field are out to lunch.

[MikePal]

So when he writes something bogus (like his breed intelligence scale: http://petrix.com/dogint/intelligence.html)

Since that intelligence scale was produced by data from 199 'specialists' (obedience judges registered with the AKC and the Canadian Kennel Club) I wouldn't call it bogus....seems rather dismissive of his efforts since it was conclusion drawn from collective data from outside sources

But then again, there was that AKC judge that gave that GSD best of breed

some background on the test to see where it comes from;

I decided to look at a random sample of 250 such pictures. I used a variety of criteria to try to keep the data as clean and precise as possible. I only used photos where the dog's face was clearly visible. I also eliminated situations where one might expect the dog's stress level to rise because of factors other than being hugged (such as when someone lifts a large dog off the ground while hugging them). Each picture received one of three possible scores:

1. One could judge that the dog was showing one or more signs of stress or anxiety;
2. One could judge that the dog appeared to be relaxed and at ease;
3. One could decide that the dog's response was ambiguous or neutral.

I can summarize the data quite simply by saying that the results indicated that the Internet contains many pictures of happy people hugging what appear to be unhappy dogs. In all, 81.6% of the photographs researchers scored showed dogs who were giving off at least one sign of discomfort, stress, or anxiety. Only 7.6% of the photographs could rate as showing dogs that were comfortable with being hugged. The remaining 10.8% of the dogs either were showing neutral or ambiguous responses to this form of physical contact.

Nonetheless, around 82% of the photographs show unhappy dogs receiving hugs from their owners or children. This seems consistent with other research which suggests that people, especially children, seem to have difficulty reading signs of stress and anxiety based upon their dogs' facial expressions.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201604/the-data-says-dont-hug-the-dog

Seems to me that the huger in these pictures could be the ones instilling the stress...I have seen my dogs faces when kids hug them...yes there is anxiety..but not because they don't enjoy huging.

[welsh]

The intelligence scale is dismissed by serious researchers because it does not actually measure intelligence. It measures how biddable dogs are. Biddability is not intelligence: in problem-solving tests, wild canids such as dingoes prove significantly more capable than domestic dogs of any breed, yet on they would be at the bottom of Coren's scale because they simply don't respond to human signals in the same way domestic dogs do. Intelligence has a bunch of different components.

As to his 250 pictures ... a lack of context and the ambiguous nature of some cues makes many photos meaningless. The first example in his article shows a dog that's clearly not happy, but it doesn't tell us why. Perhaps the dog doesn't like that kid? Still photos are a lousy way to assess behaviour (or anything, really).

A proper approach would get a sample of owners and their dogs to interact naturally for a period of time, and would look not only at body language but also at physiological responses such as oxytocin and cortisone levels.

Fact: People are annoyed by unsolicited hugs, too.