Today is Hug Your Dog Day – a day specially dedicated to hugging us!
Did you know that when you hug us, both hooman and pooch release “the cuddle hormone” otherwise known as “oxytocin” into our bloodstream. It’s a response to love.
And we get lots of hugs throughout the year from many people …
We are not short of hugs any time, all year. But today, it is just a reminder to give us extra hugs! We’ll take them any time. Just don’t crush us, Mum!
May’s comment: Really every day is hug your dog day.
In our household, Darcy and George are most often hugged when I am sitting on the toilet!!! Why? I have no idea but it seems every time I am on the loo both Darcy and George will come in (open door policy) and demand for strokes or hugs. Too much information – LOL!!!
I love cuddling them.
But there is something about those moments when they choose to engage and communicate with me that causes such an ooze of oxytocin. Those moments of their acknowledgement and I am grateful for them telling me that they love me.
To be greeted with excited tail wagging no matter it if was days or minutes – it’s their expression of joy when the oxytocin hormone is released in their brain.
Studies of brain function using a special type of MRI have shown that dogs have a strongly positive emotional response when they see or smell their owners. (Zoetis Petcare)
And the times they seek attention through touch. George would forcefully nudge my hand for attention or jumps up on the sofa and lays down right up close. Sometimes he puts his head in my lap and I would not want to move an inch in case it disrupts that moment.
When I have been sitting too long at the computer, George would come up to me and stand on his hind legs and begged to be picked up and cuddled.
Every morning I would wake up and find Darcy curled up next to my pillow on the left and sometime in the morning before the alarm went off, she would have jumped off the bed and came around to the other side, curled up in a ball by my pillow. And George would move up to take Darcy’s spot to my left. That’s why I cannot get out of bed when the alarm goes because I am revelling in a moment of togetherness. Oxytocin rushing through my bloodstream.
Forget about hug your dog day – I want to be hugged by this person any day! LOL!
