狗奴们注意了：你的汪星人不喜欢被抱
Don't hug your dog – it hates it, say animal psychologists
It may come as a shock to owners, but dogs hate being cuddled, a study has shown.
听到这个消息,狗奴们也许很惊讶,但狗狗们讨厌被拥抱,这是有研究证实了的.
Animal psychologists say dogs feel stressed and unhappy when they are embraced by their owners, because it stops them being able to run away.
动物心理学家说,当狗狗们被主人拥抱着的时候,它们会感到压力和不快,因为这样会妨碍它们跑走.
In a study which analysed 250 pictures of dogs as they were being hugged, eight out of 10 animals looked visibly uncomfortable.
一项研究分析了250张狗狗被拥抱的照片,十个里面有八个看上去明显不舒服.
Experts at The Kennel Club, and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, also agreed that owners should not treat their dogs like children, because most pets did not like to be cuddled.
"养犬俱乐部"和"巴特西猫狗之家"的专家们也认为,主人们不应该把狗当做小孩,因为大多数宠物并不喜欢被拥抱.
The new study was carried out by Dr Stanley Coren, a canine expert and professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia.
此项最新研究由斯坦利·科伦博士负责,他是英属哥伦比亚大学的犬类专家和心理学教授.
He analysed images of dogs being hugged by adults and children he found on the Internet, looking for signs of stress.
他从网上找到狗狗被大人和小孩拥抱的照片,寻找狗狗感受到压力的表现.
At an extreme end, when a dog is especially anxious it bares its teeth or may bite, but Dr Coren said there are 'subtler indicators' that it may be uncomfortable.
极端情况下,如果狗狗极度焦虑,就会龇牙,或者咬人,但是科伦博士说还有"更微妙的迹象"表明它也许非常难受.
Signs of stress include the dog folding its ears down, half-moon eyes or turning its head away to avoid eye contact. If the dog has its eyes closed or is licking his lips it could also be a sign of anxiety. Yawning or raising one paw is another warning sign.
把耳朵耷拉下来、眼角耷拉或扭过头避免眼神接触,都是狗狗感到压力的表现.如果狗狗闭上眼,或舔嘴唇,也可能是因为焦虑.张大嘴或举起一只爪子也是警告信号.
Dr Coren found that in 81.6 per cent of the photographs the dogs had at least one sign of discomfort, stress, or anxiety. Only 7.6 per cent of the photographs showed comfortable dogs whilst the remaining 10.8 per cent were either neutral or ambiguous.
科伦博士发现,81.6%的照片上,狗狗都至少有不舒服、紧张、焦虑中的一种表现.只有7.6%的照片上,狗狗看上去很舒服,而剩下那10.8%则反应不明显,或模棱两可.
"Dogs are technically cursorial animals, which is a term that indicates that they are designed for swift running," said Dr Coren wrote in an article in Psychology Today.
科伦博士在《今日心理学》杂志发表了一篇文章,他在其中表示："理论上讲,狗属于走兽,这个术语表明它们天生就喜欢敏捷地奔跑."
"That implies that in times of stress or threat the first line of defence that a dog uses is not his teeth, but rather his ability to run away.
"也就是说,当狗面临压力或威胁时,它们的第一道防线不是牙齿,而是逃跑的能力.
