4 Things Your Dog Wants You to Stop Doing Right Now
If you've got a furry little friend, you may want to pay attention to their body language next time you do these things. You might think they like this, but it's likely they don't...at all.
I've got 2 labs and we're always loving up on them cause we think they love our big hugs and random walks throughout the day. Turns out we may have been totally wrong!
The crew at IFLScience just released a story about 8 things you do that your dog secretly hates. You'd be surprised what they discovered, and may make you think twice next time you do these with your dogs.
1. Yanking them away when they're smelling something. Dogs store information in their brains based off smell more than anything else. Their smell senses are similar to our sight senses. Imagine being pushed anytime you look anywhere but straight ahead. That's what we're essentially doing to them when they stop to sniff something they're curious about. Even though it's kind of annoying to keep stopping, your dog is just trying to take in the world and enjoy things as much as you are.
2. Poorly-timed walks. Dogs are very routine driven and it's essential to keep them on a schedule. Sometimes breaking routine is for their own good though. Even if your dog is in a routine of going on a walk in the middle of the day, you might need to make adjustments depending on the weather. Summers in Minnesota can be downright hot, which means the pavement is scorching. If it's unusually warm, you should go for the walk earlier or later than usual. They are wearing a fur coat and can overheat easily. They don't have shoes, so the skin pads on their feet can also get burned instantly.
3. "Guilt-shaming" them. If you want to train your dog to feel ashamed when you pull out your cell phone, this is the way to do it. It's pretty funny to see these pics on Facebook showing dogs with the hat of shame on and looking so sad they tore up the garbage or something. It's not that it's necessarily BAD for them cause they don't usually understand, but by scolding them for a picture, you're probably confusing them at best and distressing them at worst.
4. Hugging. I badly want to disagree with this one, cause I really believe our dogs love our hugs! It's a controversial one but an experiment in 2016 found that most dogs don't like being hugged. In the study, less than 8% of dogs were cool with it. All I can say is to watch the eyes and ears to look for the signs of whether they like it or not. If their tail stops wagging, their ears pinned back, and their eyes are wide open then they may not be as happy about your hug as you think.
Dogs aren't overly complicated animals. Give them tons of love and training, and they'll be forever loyal to you. I wasn't a dog parent before until we got our dogs, and my wife and I couldn't ever see not having them in our lives!