Who will win? You or your dog?!

Really interesting question !! And I thought at first well Me of course, then I thought hmmmm IF I did not pet them I would actually be the loser.  My doctor recently tried an experiment, my blood pressure was through the roof  and the Hubs had gone out to pick up a script for me. She called me back and asked how long it was going to be until he would be able to get back to the house. I guessed about 1/2 hour. She said I was to sit in a favortite chair, no tv , no noise just one of my dogs and pet it. Then take my bp again before taking the meds and let her know the result. IT , not surprizingly dropped a significant amount in the 20 minutes we tried it.  Obviously there is a certain amount of making myself relax, BUT it made me think. My dogs are the best , unpaid therapists in the entire world, I can tell them anything and they always see my side of it.  I can say Heck with the house I want to sit and rub your ears and they never give me grief over that choice hee hee.

It is the ultimate win win ....

Bonita of Bwana

will actually move AWAY from me so I cant pet her... (That little brat!)  So today I came to thinking.... how long can I go without petting her?  And will it teach her to stop being such a brat?

you think your dog is a brat for not liking what you are doing to her and politely moving away instead of growling/biting you?  wow. Maybe you should figure out how your dog likes to be petted instead of calling her names. What a saint you are Coco.

Bonita of Bwana

Really interesting question !! And I thought at first well Me of course, then I thought hmmmm IF I did not pet them I would actually be the loser.  My doctor recently tried an experiment, my blood pressure was through the roof  and the Hubs had gone out to pick up a script for me. She called me back and asked how long it was going to be until he would be able to get back to the house. I guessed about 1/2 hour. She said I was to sit in a favortite chair, no tv , no noise just one of my dogs and pet it. Then take my bp again before taking the meds and let her know the result. IT , not surprizingly dropped a significant amount in the 20 minutes we tried it.  Obviously there is a certain amount of making myself relax, BUT it made me think. My dogs are the best , unpaid therapists in the entire world, I can tell them anything and they always see my side of it.  I can say Heck with the house I want to sit and rub your ears and they never give me grief over that choice hee hee.

It is the ultimate win win ....

Bonita of Bwana

The cool part of this is that, in the original experiment involving stock brokers, even the ones who hadn't wanted a pet realized a drop in their blood pressure!  Of course, I'm not in to doing things to dogs solely for the benefit of humans, so if your particular dog hates it, take the pills LOL.

I touch my dogs all the time.  I may not sit down to pet them, but if they're at the top of the stairs when I walk up, I trail a hand over their heads.  So it would take a lot of thoughtful willpower to not do that.  ;) 

tashakota

I touch my dogs all the time.  I may not sit down to pet them, but if they're at the top of the stairs when I walk up, I trail a hand over their heads.  So it would take a lot of thoughtful willpower to not do that.  ;) 

Same here. I'm always touching my dogs. I can't resist. However, my dogs do understand when I don't want to pet them. They'll try for a min then go away if I don't respond. They do know how to get me though. Neiko will sprawl his body over top of mine, then stretch, then look at me like "come on you can't resist petting me!" It always works. 

CoCo Chanel

Who would win the "no loving" contest between you and your dog(s)?

My dogs always initiate a petting session.  I initiate the end by changing the stroke to a pat on the head and then the dog knows we are done, for now.

i pet my dogs constantly - sometimes I dont even realize it. for example this morning I was on the patio, Akyra was in the house this morning ( she wanted to sleep in with mom :)  ) I was out having my coffee, i had let her out back to go potty, but then she kept trying to eat chicken poo so I told her to go inside, next thing I know i'm petting her!! lol she decided her 'inside' time was up & she wanted some love. I was astonished that i didn't notice & automatically was petting her.   so i told her to go inside again.  Then she did it again!! lol  I was talking to my boyfriend this whole time so all of my attention wasn't on her.   she's always pushing it, seeing what she can get away with lol.

 Emma and I are very touchy feely. In fact, I have a very hard time NOT handling her in the Rally ring. I actually NQed us, at the last trial, on the LAST sign of a course. She did a beautiful stand, stay, and I stroked all the way down her body. Oops.