Let's Not Hug It Out With Our Dogs

[Botany]

Dr. Stanley Coren, a professor emeritus in psychology at the University of British Columbia, writes in a Psychology Today blog post that hugging a dog actually increases the dog's stress level.

For his study, Coren looked at a random sampling of 250 pictures of people hugging dogs from Google Image Search and Flickr. "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," Coren writes.


Coren, who has written several books about dog behavior, says there are specific things dogs do to indicate stress. At the "high-end," dogs will "bare their teeth" at you. But dogs can still experience stress without lashing out.

"The most common sign of anxiety is when the dog turns his head away from whatever is bothering or worrying him, sometimes also closing his eyes, at least partially," Coren writes. When a dog opens its eyes wide and you can see the whites in a "half-moon" shape, that's another sign. Other indicators of stress are when the dog's ears are low and against its head, lip licking, yawning or raising a paw.

http://www.npr.org/2016/04/30/476212898/lets-not-hug-it-out-with-our-dogs

[leftofcool]

1. This guy obviously doesn't know anything about labs

Especially our LunaBear.

[randr]

7. So true

My labs swarm all over me like cats

[lame54]

2. Rubbish

[Warren Stupidity]

3. This much publicized "study" is crap pop-sci.

If your dog likes to hug, hug your dog. Otherwise, don't.

[JonathanRackham]

4. My shepherds jump in my lap. They demand hugs.

Learned behavior from our 3 cats.

Don't ask what the cats learned from the shepherds.

[DirkGently]

5. Give the dog a choice?

Dogs don't like to be suddenly reached for, and don't like being restrained, especially near their heads. Left to their own devices, they will let you know when they want affection. If they are, for example, squishing themselves up against you, like the two lazy pups currently snoozing in my lap, they are probably enjoying the physical contact. If they are looking around for an escape route, maybe loosen up?

Not sure this is "science," but probably some people need to hear it.

[Brickbat]

6. This isn't science.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Turns out this was just an opinion piece by a single researcher.

f you have an Internet connection, you’ve probably read at least one article in the past few days claiming that science has shown that dogs hate being hugged. We are not here to argue that you should go squeeze the life out of a puppy. But we are here to squeeze the life out of this misleading science coverage.

The problem is that what’s being reported as a “study” is, in fact, an op-ed written in the magazine Psychology Today by a single researcher.

“This is a set of casual observations,” said Stanley Coren, the retired University of British Columbia professor who penned the column. He repeated that his data were not part of a peer-reviewed study.

http://www.startribune.com/about-hugging-your-dog-is-it-ok/377501981/

[Botany]

10. As somebody who has a big lab laying at me feet right now .....

... I thought it was junk science. My dog from the time he was a puppy
has used to his "puffy eyes" in orser to get his way.

No, you can not come w/me ..... puffy eyes .... oh well come on buddy.

[procon]

9. This report has been debunked.

The professor who wrote the original column is getting a lot negative feedback for creative this false narrative. Don't buy into it, just read the facts and then go give your dog a big hug.

But before you give up hugging, let's do some fact checking.

The 'study' that everyone is referring is not a study in the sense of a peer-reviewed scientific study. It's a column titled "The Data Says "Don't Hug the Dog!" in the magazine Psychology Today by a UBC professor emeritus of psychology and dog expert, Stanley Coren.

He looked at a random election of 250 photos on Google image search and Flickr of people hugging dogs, and determined that in 4 out of 5 cases, the dogs exhibited at least one sign of stress.

That's right. Just 250 photos.

Read the article:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/dog-hug-stress-1.3557646

[2naSalit]

11. Crock of poo..........nt

[LiberalElite]

12. Then what about the Thundershirt? Doesn't that work similar to hugging?

http://www.thundershirt.com/?gclid=CJaIj-DmtswCFQkfhgodN40M8w

[frogmarch]

13. Bullshit.

Maybe some dogs don't, but mine always have!

They said to tell Dr. Stanley Coren to stuff it.

[Rex]

14. Geez...the dogs are not unhappy, just confused about what to do.

There is a distinct difference between being upset and being confused.

[HuckleB]

15. Debunked.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027787038

[PasadenaTrudy]

16. How many more times

do we have to see this "study" posted here? Good grief.

[Sunlei]

17. Internet posed pictures don't have enough information attached to make a scientific conclusion.

Our own dogs love to be hugged, they seek out hugs and we 'laugh' together

[Major Nikon]

21. Not to mention that dogs are often freaked out by cameras

[Major Nikon]

18. This just in, babies don't like to be kissed, proof enclosed

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. Lol

[Egnever]

20. !!!