I haven’t seen this topic before, at least during my relatively short time here, and I know resurrecting old threads is less than ideal, so here we are.
Back when my pup was still able to enjoy this existence we call life, he would curl up beside me in bed and I would wrap my arms around him; nuzzling the side of my face up against his chest while petting the fur on his back. It was fairly short-lived since he liked to get up a lot, usually to scratch at the door incessantly until I let him out my room, so I never got much cuddle time in with him for an extended period of time.
I was wondering if we get any sort of release of oxytocin when cuddling with our animal friends, or even inanimate objects, such as dolls, teddy bears, etc. There is obviously not that physical touch like with our fellow humans, and it is probably nowhere near as fulfilling, but is this possible?
It feels like a really silly thing to ask…but when the cuddles are scarce and paying is not presently in the cards, I was curious if someone knows an alternative to getting oxytocin-inducing cuddles in.
[Insert Tyrone Biggum meme here]