The study analyzed 250 Internet photos of people hugging their dogs, scanning for for known signs of anxiety in the dog, including turning their head away, showing the whites of the eyes and slicked back ears.
Coren's data revealed that 82 percent of dogs in the photos showed at least one of those signs of stress. About 8 percent of dogs seemed happy with the hug and the remaining 10 percent appeared neutral or showed an ambiguous response toward the gesture.
"Dogs are technically cursorial animals, which is a term that indicates that they are designed for swift running. That implies that in times of stress or threat the first line of defense that a dog uses is not his teeth, but rather his ability to run away," Coren wrote.
"Behaviorists believe that depriving a dog of that course of action by immobilizing him with a hug can increase his stress level and, if the dogs anxiety becomes significantly intense, he may bite."
If you want to show your dog you love them, Coren recommends petting them or giving them "a kind word" instead.
