By Sally Bradbury
Dogs don’t do hugging, so when they see us doing it, they can find it difficult to understand. They will often see people cuddling and engaging in similar physical contact as conflict, so their reaction may be one of overarousal and joining in, or they may be worried by it.
With a little bit of time and training, it is easy to overcome your dog’s negative reactions to you kissing a partner or hugging a child. For now, you will only hug without the dog in the room unless you are actively training him.
Here is how to change his mind from people hugging being a bad thing to it being a good thing.
- Use some delicious treats cut up into small pieces and sit together on the sofa or do whatever you would normally do. Touch each other on the shoulder briefly and give the dog a treat
- Repeat a few times
- Perhaps one of you then puts an arm around the other and treats the dog
I’ll leave you to work out the various stages that you are going to go through, but it is important that you start at a level that does not get a reaction from your dog. Gradually do more each time, making sure that you keep him below his threshold until you can kiss and cuddle and smooch while your dog patiently waits for a treat.
This has got to be about the most fun you can have training a dog!