Hey Humans,
I am going to take a break from writing about separation anxiety in dogs and tell you about three things that most dogs HATE about humans! There are so many things that you guys do to us dogs that are so RUDE and I bet you don’t even realize it!
1. Hugs may make you feel good but boy are they RUDE in dog language!
Ok, I know you guys are primates and all but we are NOT. In fact you will probably notice that most dogs (especially fearful and anxious ones) will lean away from you or look away when you attempt go give them hugs. If your dog lets you give im or her hugs then count yourself lucky but chances are that they are only letting you do this because you feed them and give them a home… inside they are so annoyed that they are thinking about how they can annoy you just as much as you are annoying them. Maybe putting your shoes into the toilet or humping the leg of the next visitor that comes to your house?
Be conscious of how your dog reacts to your “affection”. Yes we like to be pet but we’d prefer that you pet us under our chin or on the shoulder that is next to you rather than having you reach over top of our heads.
2. Staring a dog in the eyes or bending over top of a dog are not friendly gestures!
Every time a new person meets a dog they always bend over top of us and look us straight into our eyes. This is by far the most confrontational and rude behavior! For a dog that is the equivalent of another human coming right up to you and trying to push you around to start a fight! It’s one thing to let our owners hug us and be rude but now we are expected to let total strangers stare us down and challenge us without even barking or growling? That’s not very nice!
Dogs prefer to be approached from the side and if you want to pet us then crouch down and don’t look us directly in the face! If you meet a fearful dog you might even have to put your back to him or her and let her come up to you while totally avoiding eye contact!
3. Every time we find a delicious scent to roll around in you give us a bath!
What the heck?! We finally find something to make us smell fabulous and roll around it it so we can smell GREAT for days to come and that very same day you ALWAYS decide to give us a bath in the stinkiest smelling soap you can find?! It’s bad enough that we have to live around you humans that wear that stinky stuff every day but do you REALLY have to bathe us in it too?
I hope you humans find this educational and informative! Maybe your dogs will write me letters thanking me for informing their owners of how they really feel about those hugs!
Woof!
Manchego the Anxious Dog
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