Reading that headline probably made anyone who has a dog go "What?!! Noooo!!!" but a new study seems to support the sad findings:
In a giant bummer of an article published recently in Psychology Today,
Stanley Coren — who studies canine behavior at the University of
British Columbia — makes a sadly strong case against the dog hug,
arguing that although humans love embracing their canine pals, the physical contact stresses dogs out.
If you know what to look for, their annoyance becomes obvious.
Lesson one: Coren writes that a dog’s most common outward signal of
stress or anxiety is when he “turns his head away from whatever is
bothering or worrying him, sometimes also closing his eyes, at least
partially.” Lesson two: Just like humans, dogs have whites of the eye — it’s just that you never see it unless the animal is stressed.
And lesson three: An anxious or stressed-out dog’s ears will be
“lowered or slicked against the side of his head,” Coren writes.
[...] An embrace between humans signals communication and warmth and intimacy, but dogs, of course, are not humans. Coren explains why the restriction of an embrace may annoy or frighten a dog:
Dogs are technically cursorial animals, which is a term that indicates that they are designed for swift running. 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. 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.
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