Ask A Professional Dog Trainer: Should You Hug Your Dog? Do Dogs Like Being Hugged?
should you have your dog well the real
question we need to be asking is does
our own dog enjoy being hugged when you
talk about you know your dogs like to be
hugged or not there are very clear
signals that dogs give off that lets us
know as humans how the dog is feeling
when we do something to our dog and our
dog doesn’t like it they give off
warning signs and these signs mean stop
what you’re doing get away from me I
don’t like this I’m uncomfortable and if
they continue to do those things and we
don’t notice the warning signs and our
dog bites us our dog is right to bite us
because that is the clearest way they
can communicate to us what they’re
feeling and when we talk about do dogs
enjoy to be hugged and want to be hugged
this is one of the times we have to look
for those warning signs and this is
what’s directly going to tell us whether
or not our dog likes to be hugged if I
put my arms or my dog and start to hug
him and I see him licking his lips I see
him pulling away I see him yawning I see
him looking away from me trying to avoid
eye contact these are all signs that my
dog is saying I don’t like what’s going
on and that that means my dog doesn’t
enjoy being hub and it does caused him
stress it’s very easy to you know think
about how humans interact with other
humans and project that on to our dogs
because we love our dogs just as much as
you know other humans but it’s very
important to keep in mind that dogs are
dogs and humans are humans as simple as
that sounds
often times it gets the lines can get
blurred because we do have such close
relationships with our dogs and we do
love them so much a human hugging a dog
is not something that a dog naturally
wants Alton if a dogs were you know
running around in the wild stray dogs
the dogs are never going to be sitting
around thinking to themselves oh boy I
hope with one day a human hugs me that’s
just not something that that dogs need
or spent dogs think that’s not something
that’s that’s in them if we hug our dogs
were doing it for for our benefits not
not for the dogs so looking for these
warning signs is what is directly going
to tell us whether or not
our dog and Joy’s become so what I want
to do is demonstrate with my own dog I
know my dog doesn’t like to be hugged
but I’m gonna hug him anyways to show
you how to look for the warning signs so
you know if your dog will enjoy peanuts
so I wanted to do an experiment here for
you I’m gonna hug my dog we’re gonna
look for the warning signs and we’re
gonna see if he enjoys it if he
tolerates it or they actually just
clogging him stress okay so I thought
Matt seriously on the ground so Paul’s
coming up here and I’m just gonna look
for the warning signs okay so I give him
a hug and now let’s see what happens
he’s growling okay huge warning sign
he’s telling you very clearly that he
doesn’t like we’re gonna do it I’m gonna
hug him again he’s growling he’s telling
me I don’t like what you’re doing and
he’s he’s yummy
he looks his lips okay let’s try again
okay and what he just did was perfectly
right he was a hundred percent right to
do that because I’m he was giving me
very clear warning signs he growl he
growled the second time I did it I
didn’t stop the third time he growl he
gone he went to lips and there’s a
progression he was telling me is it’s
clear he possibly can in dog language
that he did not like what I was doing so
important this video has given you a
little bit of insight as to know whether
or not dogs enjoyed being hug and helps
you to decide whether or not hugging
your dog is a good idea if you are
having your dog use people’s warning
signs keep in mind that odds are your
dog does not like to be hugging it’s
causing her stress if you’re not seeing
those wine signs and your dog is
probably just tolerating the behavior
but always remember to look for the
signs
other dogs saying I don’t like what
you’re doing and as soon as you see them
immediately stop hugging your dog
number one dominance is not the
personality trait so describing a dog is
dominant is not even using the word
correctly
number two
