Stories3 min(s) read
Published 09:55 05 Sep 2025 GMT
A vet has revealed why pet owners should not hug their dogs.
It's no secret that a lot of people enjoy showing their furry friends some affection from time to time, but a vet has actually revealed that it might actually be doing some of them more harm than good.
In a blog post for Psychology Today, Psychologist Stanley Coren explained that the majority of dogs can become distressed when they feel confined by hugs, which in turn can cause the animal to become stressed and can result in them acting aggressively.
"Dogs are technically cursorial animals, which is a term that indicates that they are designed for swift running," Coren wrote. "That implies that in times of stress or threat the first line of defense that a dog uses is not his teeth, but rather his ability to run away."
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So by hugging them, you actually restrict their ability to escape whatever might be causing them stress which might make them act out.
"Behaviorists believe that depriving a dog of that course of action by immobilizing him with a hug can increase his stress level and, if the dog's anxiety becomes significantly intense, he may bite," the psychologist added.
Just to double down on his findings, Coren also carried out a study using photos on the internet under the searches "hug dog" or "love dog" to see if physical hugs were actually displaying visible signs of discomfort to our four-legged friends.
The conclusions suggested they were.
"I can summarize the data quite simply by saying that the results indicated that the Internet contains many pictures of happy people hugging what appears to be unhappy dogs," he wrote before delving into the details of the results.
"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," he recalled.
Instead, Coren advised pet-owners to express their fondness with "a pat, a kind word, and maybe a treat."
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Patricia McConnell, a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist also agreed, as per a report published the Daily Mail.
Writing on her own personal blog, The Other End Of The Leash, she said: "Yes, your dog may leap into your lap, kiss your face and beg you to rub her belly. But that's not 'hugging.' In my experience, many dogs don't enjoy having a human move one or two arms around their shoulders and squeeze.
"That's the hug we are talking about," she added.
A further report by the Daily Paws also stated that dogs who do enjoy hugs are the "exception", as per Lauren Novack, an author on the topic.
She suggested that it's actually a pretty stressful situation for a pup to be in.
"When dogs don't like something and politely ask for space over and over again to no avail, they're likely to escalate their communication to growling or biting," she explained. "I don't want dogs to be stressed, and I don't want humans to get bitten. For most dogs, hugs are stressful."
So the next time you can sense your pet feeling uncomfortable at the physical attention it's getting, don't worry because it's a natural reaction. Following Coren's advice of patting your pet or giving them a treat might be the better way to go about showing them a little bit of love.
