Depriving your dog of attention and affection
When a dog climbs on your lap or tries to be affectionate in general and push your dog away or ignore your dog, you unknowingly hurt your dog’s feelings.
If you find yourself continually ignoring or rejecting your dog’s affection or attempts to get attention, it may severely impact your dog’s love for you. This can impact your overall relationship with your pup.
It is essential for you to keep in mind that your dog’s world revolves around you. Your dogs depend on you for their needs like food, happiness, love, and other essential requirements for the dog’s survival.
If you think about it, your dogs spent their entire lives surrounded by you, the dog owner. Your dogs depend on you for their happiness and their survival.
By nature, dogs thrive on interaction and just being social in general. Isolating your dog or depriving them of attention can lead to lasting emotional scars and depression.
Ways you unintentionally do that hurt your dog’s feelings.
You finally have the answer to the question, “Can you hurt a dog’s feelings?” We know the answer is yes – but it gets a little more complicated.
Abusing or hitting a dog is horrible, awful behavior that is against the law. But it is other behaviors that are more subtle that can unknowingly upset a dog and hurt its feelings.
“What do you do unintentionally that may hurt your dog’s feelings?”
As dog owners, you treat your dogs like family and do not want to mistreat your dogs.
However, without your knowledge, you may be doing something to your dog that causes emotional scarring.
Part of our responsibilities as dog owners is to understand your dog’s emotions and address your dog’s needs. Your behavior has a significant impact on your pup, especially actions that may result in emotional harm.
To understand your dog better, here are some of the ways you are hurting your dog’s feelings without even knowing.
If I’m sad or crying, he’ll comfort me.
This one is partly funny, he reacts not only to my genuine sadness but also when Im watching a sad movie or show.
Besides the tear licking, he sticks close to my side and snuggles in close to comfort me.
14 Signs Your Dog Doesn’t Love You (Even if You Think They Do)
Jodie is an obsessed dog mum who loves to learn how to best care for her pup Wally and she loves to share the things she learns with others. Shes always been a pet owner but loves dogs the most and loves being surrounded by like-minded dog lovers.
There are many studies out there explaining the emotional benefits of owning a dog, and how good for your mental health dogs can be. I have seen how my pup helps my mental health every day, and especially when I am feeling down.
Science has proven that pups also pick up on their humans mood, and it influences theirs. I know my dog often picks up changes in my mood, especially when Im not feeling my best.