Let's Not Hug It Out With Our Dogs 別再抱我們的狗狗了！
We all love our dogs. But depending on how you show that love, you may be doing more harm than good, according to one expert.
我們都愛狗狗，但是根據一位專家指出，你對狗狗表現愛意的方式，對狗狗的影響可能是弊大於利。
Dr. Stanley Coren, a professor emeritus in psychology at the University of British Columbia, writes in a Psychology Today blog post that hugging a dog actually increases the dog's stress level.
英屬哥倫比亞大學心理學榮譽教授史丹利．柯倫，在今日心理學(Psychology Today)部落格中的一篇文章中寫道：事實上擁抱狗會增加狗的壓力。
For his study, Coren looked at a random sampling of 250 pictures of people hugging dogs from Google Image Search and Flickr. "I can summarize the data quite simply by saying that the results indicated that the Internet contains many pictures of happy people hugging what appear to be unhappy dogs," Coren writes.
在他的研究中，柯倫對在Google圖片搜尋引擎和Flickr上隨機挑選的250張人類擁抱狗狗的照片進行分析，柯倫寫道：「我可以簡單地對這些資料作出結論，那就是結果指出網路上有著許多開心的人們抱著似乎不太開心的狗狗的照片。」
Coren, who has written several books about dog behavior, says there are specific things dogs do to indicate stress. At the "high-end," dogs will "bare their teeth" at you. But dogs can still experience stress without lashing out.
已經寫過幾本關於狗狗行為的書的柯倫表示，有幾件特定的行為可以判斷狗狗正在承受壓力，狗狗會對你露出他們的牙齒，但是狗狗還是有可能在不對他人進行攻擊行為的情況下感受到壓力。
"The most common sign of anxiety is when the dog turns his head away from whatever is bothering or worrying him, sometimes also closing his eyes, at least partially," Coren writes. When a dog opens its eyes wide and you can see the whites in a "half-moon" shape, that's another sign. Other indicators of stress are when the dog's ears are low and against its head, lip licking, yawning or raising a paw.
柯倫寫道：「最常見的焦慮徵兆是狗狗會將頭轉開任何為會讓他們感到困擾或著擔心的東西，有時候也會閉上眼睛，至少閉一點點。」當狗狗張開他的眼睛然後你能看到他們的眼白呈現「半月形」，另外一個壓力的徵兆是當狗狗耳朵下垂、舔嘴脣、打哈欠或事舉起一個爪子。
Dogs showed one of these signs of distress in 81.6 percent of the pictures he surveyed, he writes.
他寫道，他調查的照片中，有百分之81.6的狗狗有呈現這些痛苦的徵兆。
Coren says the reason for dogs not taking kindly to human hugs goes back to their evolutionary history. "Dogs are technically cursorial animals, which is a term that indicates that they are designed for swift running," he writes. "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." So when you hug the dog, it can feel trapped.
柯倫表示，狗狗們不喜歡人類們擁抱的原因要追朔他們的演化歷史，他寫道「嚴格說起來狗狗是行走動物(cursorial animals)，這個專有名詞意思是他們天生適合快速奔跑。這代表說當遇到壓力或是感受到威脅時，他們的第一個防禦行為不是使用他的牙齒，而是跑離。」所以當你擁抱你的狗狗時，他們感覺被困住了。
And in certain cases, especially with young children, hugging can be dangerous. "All of the bite prevention programs ... say 'Don't hug the dog,' " Coren tells NPR's Scott Simon. He says data about dog bites and children show "facial bites most often occur right after the kid had been hugging the dog."
而且在某些特殊情況，特別是小孩，擁抱狗狗可能是很危險的，科倫告訴NPR(全球公共廣播電台)的史考特·賽門：「所有預防被咬的..都說『不要抱狗』。」他表示關於狗狗咬小孩的資料顯示「臉被咬傷通常就發生在小孩子擁抱狗狗之後。」
"The issue is not that you shouldn't love your dog, it's just the ways that you express your affection," Coren says. "When I was a kid I had an aunt who was very fond of me, and she would run up to me every time she visited the house and pinch both of my cheeks and say, 'Oh, I love you so much!' She thought she was expressing affection and I hated it."
柯倫表示「重點不是你不應該愛你的狗，只是你對他們表達愛意的方式。當我還小的時候，有一個非常喜歡我阿姨，每次造訪我們家的時候她就會跑向我，捏著我的雙頰並說『喔！我好愛你！』她認為她在表達愛意，但我討厭她這麼做。」
Dog-huggers did not take kindly to Coren's pronouncement.
喜歡擁抱狗狗的人討厭科倫的這一番聲明。
"My dogs love being hugged," dog trainer Corey Cohen told The New York Times. Cohen told the Times the dogs in pictures Coren surveyed may have been nervous because they were being posed to take a picture.
Dr. Marc Bekoff, a professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, says it's OK to hug your dog — sometimes.
狗訓練師Corey Cohen告訴紐約時報：「我狗狗喜歡被擁抱」，Cohen告訴紐約時報柯倫所調查的圖片中，狗狗會緊張是因為他們被擺定姿勢拍照，科羅拉多大學波德分校生態學和進化生物學的榮譽教授－Marc Bekoff表示，「適時的」是沒關係的。
"Just like people, some dogs love it, some sort of like it, and some may not like the close contact at all," Bekoff writes in a response, also on Psychology Today's website. It's important to consider factors like how well a dog knows you and how noisy the environment is. "And, if you're unsure, don't hug the dog! Better safe than sorry," he writes.
Bekoff也在《今日心理學》網站的回覆中寫道：「就像人類，有些狗狗愛，有些某種程度上喜歡，而有些則完全不喜歡近距離接觸。」考量一隻狗對你熟悉的程度和環境吵雜的程度等因素是很重要的，他寫道：「然而，如果你不確定，那就別抱狗！安全總好過發生憾事。」
According to Coren, there's a simple, non-stressing way to let your dog know you care. "It is clearly better from the dog's point of view if you express your fondness for your pet with a pat, a kind word, and maybe a treat."
根據科倫所述，有一個很簡單、無壓力的方式來告訴你狗狗你在乎他，「以狗狗的觀點來說，拍拍他、一句溫柔的話語或著或許是一份小點心，用這些方式來表達你的喜愛一定會比擁抱他來的好。」
