Respect your Dog

Esther’s writing prompt: 10th December : Respect

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Dogs are living conscious beings, and they should not be mistreated, hurt or treated disrespectfully. For example, don’t allow kids to play rough with dogs or take their food. Do not hit them. Do not push their face towards the feces when they have an accident inside the house. There is a widespread false misconception that you should. Again, respect your dog.

Do not keep them outside for a long time in the heat or cold. Do not abandon them, especially not to the wild where they will not survive. When your dog gets old, slow and boring, take care of it. You can get a new puppy but do not ever replace an old dog with a puppy. Doing so is cruel and immoral. Dogs deserve your respect.

This may be self-evident to most dog owners. However, I have seen people do these things to dogs and worse, so it bears repeating.

Do not let kids or Puppies Pull a Dog’s Tail

Playing with a dog is, of course, fine. They love running after balls and other toys and having fun in the backyard, playing with kids and other dogs. However, having their tail pulled is not their version of fun and it can cause a dog to bite. I am guilty of this myself. When I was a kid, I pulled the tail of my uncle’s dog and I almost got bitten. When our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo was still a puppy he sometimes pestered our Leonberger Bronco by pulling his tail and even dangling in it like a swing. We did not allow this, but accidents happened. Luckily Bronco was very patient with Rollo, and he let us know when there was tail biting mischief under way so that we could remove Rollo.

The photo shows a mini-Australian Shepherd biting a Leonberger’s tail.
Rollo, our mini-Australian Shepherd, frequently bit our Leonberger Bronco’s tail, and he even swung in it like a swing. He climbed all over Bronco. Bronco was very patient with him. Naturally, we did not allow this, but accidents happened.

Do not let kids ride big dogs

Do not allow children to ride big dogs like a horse. This could cause severe spinal injuries to the dog because their backs aren’t built for weight. The dog may also bite the kid to defend itself.

A small boy is sitting on the back of a big Leonberger dog. A red X is drawn across the picture, and it features the text Don’t in red.
Don’t allow. This is very dangerous to the dog as well as the kid as the dog may bite. The dog in the picture is a Leonberger. This image was generated with the help of AI/ChatGPT.

Dogs Get Lonely

Don’t leave dogs alone for extended periods of time. Dogs need to potty, they need interaction, they get lonely and anxious. It is typically fine to leave an adult dog at home for a couple of hours but much longer than that could be a problem. If the dog goes potty on the floor when home alone for a long time, well that is not the dog’s fault. You clean it up and apologize to the dog.

A dark brown and white Australian Shepherd is looking out the window of a brick house.
A lonely Australian Shepherd looking out the window. This image was generated with the help of AI/ChatGPT.
Rollo our dark brown and white mini-Australian Shepherd is standing in front of the window looking out. You can see the reflection of me and the rest of the neighborhood in the window, obscuring Rollo a bit.
Rollo is looking out the window. We don’t leave him for very long but when we do he sits and looks out the window. You can see the reflection of me taking the photo and of the neighborhood in the window.

It is a little bit better when dogs have the company of each other.

A pug and a mini-Australian Shepherd are standing on the sofa looking out the window. The joke goes: Daisy says : Rollo do you want to hear a joke? Rollo says OK. Daisy says Knock! Knock! They both start barking like crazy.
Daisy’s and Rollo’s knock knock joke.

Hugs May not be Welcome

Perhaps surprisingly most dogs find hugs uncomfortable and stressful because they restrict their natural “flight” instinct and make them feel threatened, even though humans see it as affection. Our Leonberger gave us Leonberger hugs, meaning he leaned on us, or pressed his body against us, but like most dogs he probably did not like human arms around his body. If you put your arms around a dog they may start licking their lips, yawning, or even trying to get away. These are stress signals. If they lick your face in this situation, it is not likely to be a kiss, but attempted appeasement. Essentially, the dog wants to please you, but he is wondering why you are mean by giving him a hug without his consent.

The picture shows a Leonberger dog looking forward as boy on his right is hugging the dog and putting his arm around him.
Hugs may not be welcome. Watch for lip licking and other stress signals when kids do this. Perhaps ask the kid not to squeeze the dog with his arms. This image was generated with the help of AI/ChatGPT.

In the picture below our Leonberger Bronco is reaching out to me to give me a hug, as I entered the room, but maybe I should not have put my arm around him. I should say Bronco was a very tolerant dog.

Bronco is standing on our red leather sofa giving me hug and a kiss.
Bronco our Leonberger is giving me a kiss, or is it? He is about one year old and not yet fully grown.

To learn more about the complex question of dog hugs you can watch the 8 minute video below.

In summary, Respect Your Dog

To visit a related post, Promises To My Dog, click here.

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

49 thoughts on “Respect your Dog”

  1. A very important post Thomas and a strong reminder to people to treat their dogs (and all pets) with respect. Like you, I find it heartbreaking what happens to some pets.

    I’ve never hugged my dogs as I long ago sensed that they didn’t like it. Most of mine were “leaners” though and I always took that to be a sort of canine hug.

    I have to say that some puppies might like cuddling (depending on age, breed and situation). I once fostered a cocker spaniel puppy who snuggled into my shoulder for hours at a time. She had lost her mother at a very young age and I think needed the closeness that she otherwise would have had from her.

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    1. Thank you so much Lynette. There are so many good pet owners out there, and so many OK pet owners who are learning, and then we have the really terrible and cruel ones. I was just watching a video of a family putting their kid, wearing a cowboy hat, on the back of their big dog and parading them around the house to yehaas and shouts. Not to mention the estimated hundreds of thousands of dogs being victims in dog fighting rings. It is dark.

      I am impressed that you picked up so quickly on the fact that dogs don’t like hugs, or human hugs. As you can see from the photo evidence it took me a while to realize that even though I rarely gave my dogs hugs. I felt that they probably preferred regular petting but I didn’t know. The story in your last paragraph is very sweet.

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    1. Yes you are right Esther. There are good dog owners, dog owners who have good intensions but are still learning (like me), and those who don’t truly love their dog and don’t think about what’s right for their animal. Also thank you so much for holding this prompt write off.

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  5. Wonderful advice, Thomas! Sometimes it’s hard to understand that what for us is affection may feel like a threat for them. I see it too with my cats! Thank you for this important information! Much enjoyed! Light and blessings to you, my friend 🙏✨

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    1. Yes, how they experience hugging came as a surprise to me when I first learned about it, and you can see in my photo with Bronco that at the time I did not know. Thank you so much for your kind words Susana and light and blessings to you, my friend.

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  9. Great advice! I have always lightly kissed the top of my oldest dog’s head. Which she likes. But when we got our smaller dog, I went to kiss her on the top of her head, and she growled at me. So no kissing for her. They do like to have their head patted and they love to snuggle beside us.

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  10. Lovely post Thomas, and so true. Maya isn’t a hugger, but Maggie was very tactile. You ‘learn’ your dog as well as train them and they become part of the family, but I believe you have to respect their space. They need a ‘sanctuary’, be it their bed, a cage, or just being close to you where they feel safe and unthreatened. We take Maya with us most of the time, but we do have a friend who will come to the house and sit with her if we have an emergency (as we do for her) or have to go to the hospital as it’s an hour journey each way and we will not leave her on her own for that long, nor leave her in the car. All dogs are different, even two pups from the same litter, but many people seem to think same breeds have same traits. Not so. They are individuals like us.

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    1. You are so right Di, and every dog is different. Many dogs don’t like confinement and arms around them but som don’t mind. The best is if you can figure it out. You are right, they are indiviudals like us. We have a veterinary student (former veterinary technician) who comes and watches Rollo for us when we travel. She stays overnight in our house.

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      1. That’s lovely about Rollo not being alone. We looked after our friends dog for a weekend when they went to a wedding. They only live down the road, I slept at their house and fed her there to keep to her routine, but other than that, she was here with us and Maya all day. It worked out very well, and our friends didn’t have to worry as they knew Prudence was safe and happy with us.

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  15. Thank you for this excellent and important post, Thomas. Dogs have feelings and deserve our respect. They want to be with their families. So many people do not understand the hugging/pressure thing. I know I’ve been guilty of it myself in the past. But when we know better, we do better. I learned in Fear Free Training for my volunteer work, that dogs naturally prefer a smooth, sliding petting motion rather than a pat on the head.

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    1. Yes the pat on the head is another think I’ve read that they don’t like. I noticed that one myself though before reading so I wasn’t doing it. They certainly want to be with us and get along so making it hard for them is unfair. Thank you so much for your kind words JoAnna

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  16. This is important information for people to be aware of! With respect to hugs, most of our dogs have liked them (especially the vizslas, being notorious velcro dogs), including Bean ― he enjoys them now, but only after years of being here. If we had tried to give him a hug when he was new he would have run for the hills. Both Bean and Lulu prefer a skritch on the chin to a pat on the head.

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    1. Thank you James. It is great that you were and are so close to your dogs. Bronco was a velcro dog too, with him leaning and pushing on you, but I am not sure if he liked having arms around him. I did not do it much even though it happened.

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  17. Thomas, what a great post! Learning to read a dog’s body language is so important! People who misread another person’s body language may lose friends or get into disagreements with strangers. Dogs may be much more forgiving, but if we want them to be comfortable and happy, we will listen to what they are trying to tell us.

    Happy Holidays! Happy New Year Year! 💕🎉😊

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  19. Java Bean: “Ayyy, I am not really super into the hugs, but I do like to have an arm over me when I sleep next to Dada in bed at night, which I think he thinks counts. Me, it just means I have a human standing guard to keep me safe!”Lulu: “You know Dada is sleeping then too and not standing guard, right?”Java Bean: “WHAT?!”

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  23. Very informative post! My husband is allergic to most dogs, so our dog has to stay outdoors. We do whatever we can to keep him comfortable and socialized. Plus, he is a guard dog. But he’s definitely not neglected.

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