Dog lovers love hugging their dogs to display their affection. But it turns out dogs probably don't want humans hugging them at all.

When hugged by a human, a dog's instinctive response is to run away and not to return any sign of affection such as tail wagging. Hugging prevents a dog from running away. Result? Instead of feeling love, a dog feels imprisoned.

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This dismaying finding was the conclusion of a recent study published in Psychology Today that revealed most dogs are stressed out by human hugs because dogs are "cursorial" animals.

Study author Stanley Coren, a neuropsychological researcher and an expert in canine behavior from the University of British Columbia, analyzed 250 Internet photos of people hugging dogs. He examined the photos for known signs of anxiety in dogs. These signs included dogs turning their heads away or showing the whites of their eyes.

Coren's painstaking photographic analysis discovered that 82 percent of the dogs revealed at least one sign of stress. On the other hand, some eight percent of the dogs seemed happy to be hugged. The remaining 10 percent appeared to show an ambiguous response toward hugging.

"Dogs are technically cursorial animals, which is a term that indicates that they are designed for swift running," according to Coren. "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."

He said behaviorists believe that denying a dog the ability to flee by immobilizing him with a hug can increase a dog's stress level and. A word of caution: if a dog's anxiety becomes very intense, the dog may bite the human.

So, what's the right way to show your dog that you love him? Just pet him or say "a kind word" to him, said Coren.

TagsDogs, hugging, Stanley Coren