4 Effective Reasons Why Does My Dog Rub His Face On Me?

In this tutorial, I will teach you why my dog rubs his face on me. Dogs perform much unexpected behaviors, which would be new for you.

Many times dogs leave his scent on their owner to rub them. In this way, he marked the signal on his owner, and communicate with them. Sometimes there is a medical issue. But commonly this is not a medical issue, this is the love of the dog.

Don’t worry about this, we will go right on their causes and identify how this behavior is and how to tackle this. So why are you waiting, read below quickly.

Main Reasons Why Does My Dog Rub His Face On Me

For your ease, we will classify the cause into two parts:

• Common Reasons.
• Medical Reasons.

Common Reasons

These all are common reasons which are the instinct of dogs, and not harmful for dogs. You see these causes in dogs’ daily life.

1- Share the Scent

The dog has sharp fast smelling power. He can smell anything from very far. Dogs have one beautiful characteristic they leave their scent on anything to save memory to know this thing is their own in the future.

The dog rubs his face on his owner to leave their scent on their owner. This habit would mostly be in new dogs. The benefit of leaving his scent is when he sniffs that person he knew that this person is my owner. And he wants the other dog doesn’t approach his owner.

2- Want Attention

If you are a busy person and do not spend quality time with your dog, for example; not going for walk, not giving your dog exercise, and don’t give praise and love. Your dog gets a lack of your attention.

When your dog needs attention, they slowly rub his body against you and say you for giving him attention, then you should go to your dog for some effective activities.

3- Want Food

If your dog is foody and loves food. So the dog strongly rubs his face with you, then runs toward the food place or fridge. He repeats this process until you give him food. 

4- Itchy

When my dog feels itchy, he rubs himself on the carpet and wants to overcome the itch. When my dog sees me, he runs toward me and rubs his body on me to remove his itch. This is a natural behavior of dogs and also cat when they feel itchy they rub their body with their owner.

If your dog’s face has itchy, they rub his face on your body and want you to scratch him. Scratch with the brush in the neck, and below the mouth. Another method should scratch your dog’s neck with your fingers if you have no brush available.

5- The dog feels my Sadness

The dog is sensitive. When he sees that you are sad, he feels that there is something wrong, and they try to solve your sadness. He rubs his face with you to distract your concentration and he wants to see you happy. Don’t push him when you are sad, your dog trying to release your sadness.

Many people adopt dogs to decrease their sadness. When peoples are sad they go to the dog and spent time with the dog because the dog is honest with them. 

6- Showing Dominance 

You learned above the dog leaves the scent on his owner. When they rub his face and spread scent on their owner, they mark him a part of their pack. And they don’t want to see you from other dogs.

They make territories around other dog and shows dominance. At that time you should stay calm and train your pup with patience.

7- Cleaning

The dog naturally wants to remain clean. When they rub their face with you, there is a mystery that could hide. The dog would be close to you to wipe his nose with your body. But you don’t judge this behavior of dogs because they perform it very secretly.

For Example, in our house, a small baby tries to wipe his mouth with the cloth of his mom. Your dog could be like this baby. 

8- Greeting with you

If you spent more time in the office and come back in the evening, then in your house your dog waits for you to greet you. When you come home your pup is excited, stand at the door and rub his face on you and wag his tail, and dance to greet you.

9- Feel Comforting or secure

Many dogs can be stressed out sometimes like humans. They find comfort to decrease their stress. Then they rub their body on you and feel comfortable. Your lap is best for dog comfort. The dog feels secure when he spent time with you and rubs his face on you.

If your pup feels uncomfortable, give him food and give him permission to spend some days in your room to overcome this.

10- Showing his love for you

Some dogs are lovely in nature. They love their owner. When he rubs his face on you this means they show you that they trust you. He loves you and wants to get love back from you.

Medical Reasons

Here is below some medical reasons discussed:

1- Separation Anxiety

Separation anxiety is a major cause of dogs rubbing their face on their owner. When you go off to your village and your dog is in the house. They feel loneliness and bark but nobody is here which hear their sound and this causes separation anxiety.

When you come back to your house, they rub his face on you. Your dog dislikes some places and he could frustrate. So setting the crate of the dog in the socialization area of the house, and can help to decrease anxiety.

2- Pain

There are many face pain that forces my dog to rub his face on me such as tooth pain, ear pain, nose pain, mouth pain, etc. and the dog rubs him on any place to ease this pain. Those dogs that have dental pain, eat less or eat from one side of their mouth or eat soft food only.

Ear pain is due to any infection in the ear that causes redness or bad odor within the ear. So consult with a veterinarian.

3- Brain Tumor

A brain tumor in a dog is a rare case. If your dog rubs his face on you this does not mean that your dog has a brain tumor. Brain tumor has some symptom, for example, vision changes, hearing changes, behavioral changes, or seizures.

If this symptom lies in your dog and they rub their face on anything, then suddenly meet the veterinarian.

4- Collar/Harness Irritation

Tight or fit collars remove hair from the dog’s neck, which causes sometimes infection and sometimes itches. The dog rubs his neck on something to overcome his discomfort. Choose an adjustable collar which not remove the dog hair during pulling.

5- Need Calcium

Calcium is necessary for dogs. Lack of calcium or hypocalcemia cause itches and rubbing of his face. Lack of calcium can occur due to many medical reasons which include excessive drinking, aggression, seizure, twitching, or excessive urinating. So check your dog from a veterinarian.  

6- Chiari-Like Malformation

This causes dog face rubbing, if you want to learn CM, their cause and their treatment in detail then visit this site.

Final Words

In final words, we learn why my dog rubs his face on me. Their several reasons were discussed. The dog shows his love and loyalty to his owner. Don’t push him away, love him. Hope you learn and enjoy this blog post. Thanks for reading. 

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