Hi Everybody, I took the weekend off. Met with friends and new friends and had such a good time. I didn’t get back until around noon today. There isn’t anything in the world like a hug from someone who likes you. I guess dogs know that better than anyone. VBG
Darcy
Hi Darcie,
I really enjoy The Dish, so thanks for your posts. Just wanted to note though that hugging is kinda a primate thing. Dogs can be conditioned to like them by pairing hugs with cookies, but generally speaking the dogs I’ve known seem to like a good old a chest scratch better than hugs. Of course, I’m sure there are exceptions among dogs.
With all due respect – and not wanting to speak for Darcie, who I’m sure will be comfortable giving her own feedback – I just want to say that “hugs” to a dog can mean a lot of things.
I consider that my dogs feel ‘hugged’ when temperatures (like now) hover around ten below zero and they have just finished enjoying a 45-minute chew of their raw beef knucklebones on a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet (spread on my living room floor for their comfort and convenience) in my 60-degree house.
My dogs feel ‘hugged’ during 95% humidity and dangerous temperatures of our brutal Midwestern summers when they can train with me in my air-conditioned house – which give them something to anticipate and think about, since we can’t go for long walks in that kind of heat.
They’ve been ‘hugged’ when we have a rip-roaring thunderstorm and they know they have places already reserved for them, snugged up against me in a bed already warm with familiar and safe scents of me and them.
They feel hugged when they know their regular routines (breakfast at ##AM, break time at Noon, supper at ##PM) are all in place and all’s right with their world.
And so I wish such hugs to your dogs
Kathy B.