It’s cute when dogs hug. Fun fact though- in canine behavior, “hugging” is a sign of dominance. It’s a way of saying: “I am in your personal space, you aren’t going to do anything about it.” When dogs play they often will do this as well- as dog play- much like a good deal of human sport- is often about dominance- or “play” at dominance- for the same reasons that be it football or a fighting sport the rules are set up to try and keep people from getting badly hurt or killed- the point being to show who is dominant without actually risking your life as such a huge risk for the common social need to establish a “hierarchy” would prove to not be very good for a social species in general. So when you hug your dog or your dog hugs you or another dog, the message there is the one giving the hug is “top dog.”
Humping behavior- at least when it isn’t actually an attempt to hump.... can be a few things. It CAN be a dominance behavior- but it can also be either simply a release of pent up energy and excitement- such as when a dog has been playing and play suddenly stops but the dog is “wound up,” or when a dog hasn’t been able to otherwise release energy. It can also be a type of neurotic behavior in dogs with anxiety or other mental issues, or who just haven’t been socialized well- somewhat like a human child jumping and climbing all over a person- but with humping.
Or at least that’s what most canine behaviorists agree on. To be honest- we can’t REALLY say definitively. I mean, we have to observe dogs and try to interpret what their behaviors mean- and the paradox is that we have to try to relate them in terms humans can understand- but at the same time dogs likely process things very differently than us, meaning we can’t rely completely on empathy or sympathetic correlations. I mean- who’s to say that “happiness” or “sadness” are the same emotions? There are very likely and seemingly observably some parallels- but we really don’t KNOW- it’s all just educated guessing and observation.
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