Here’s how to tell if your dog hates hugs

Do you hug your dog?

If you do, you're not alone. Unfortunately, it turns out that dogs don't like being hugged all that much. Dogs, unlike humans, are cursorial animals - which means that their number one defence mechanism is not to bite or scratch, but to run. Hugging a dog deprives them of this course of action, meaning that they begin to feel anxious and trapped. Common signs of stress that will let you know if your cuddling is actually cruelty are a downward pointing of the ears, lip-licking or licking of the person's face, yawning, or raising one paw. Stanley Coren, a leading dog psychologist, studied 250 photos of dogs and noticed that 81 per cent of the dogs who were being hugged showed signs of discomfort. Only 7.6 per cent of dogs looked as though they were comfortable being hugged. So if you're a hugger, you'd better hope that your dog is in the 7.6 per cent.