We can’t deny we all love to see videos of our dogs doing adorable things with their humans, but one of the latest Tik Tok challenges could be very harmful to dogs and to their human friends.
Currently the popular trend is to get very close to your dog’s face and bark at him loudly – all while recording the video. The idea behind this dangerous nonsense is to get a dramatic response from the dog to garner the most views. It’s all about the number of views.
And so millions of views are being “liked” by users who are trying to elicit wild reactions from their dogs just so they can upload the dog’s response for more views. And although there has been a lot of attention, the challenge involves an activity that dogs can find stressful. Many of the reactions people have been posting have not been funny at all.
According to the AKC.org, most of the posts have shown dogs displaying signs of stress, fear or discomfort. Often their eyes are wide-open, their bodies exhibit stiffness as do their faces, their ears are often pinned back and some of the dogs have barked back at their owners. Further responses shown have included the dogs licking their licks (calming for dogs), showing their teeth or some even trying to get away from their human.
The dogs become confused; some dogs even demonstrating fearful behavior and actions.
Most dogs become surprised or shocked by unexpected behavior from their owners. While some dogs will tolerate this behavior, others understandably may react out of fear or discomfort by barking, lunging, snapping or even biting out of fear/discomfort.
AKC
Some dogs are not big fans of having their personal space invaded. Many don’t like to be hovered over or someone leaning too close into them. It’s best to let the dog take the lead on what feels comfortable for them.
And there is more to this challenge. [eyeroll here] Besides people getting very close to their dog, the challenge also involved making and maintaining eye contact with the pup. For some dogs, staring at them presents a threat, and it may wind up with the dog reacting defensively to that person. In some cases, even if you know your dog well, why put them ill at ease like that?
And now we come to the “barking at dogs” challenge itself.
Barking in your dog’s face can be confusing, stressful or even be seen as threatening. That confusion or frustration leads to big reactions such as your dog bearing teeth or trying to get away, which can be seen in many of the viral videos.
Doing something to intentionally bother or startle your dog might get a funny video, but over time, it can erode your dog’s trust in you. It can also put you at risk of being bitten or lead to your dog feeling like they need to protect themselves from you, the person your dog should feel safest with.
AKC
You can check out some of the barking videos on Tik Tok here.
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