
“Good morning, human!”
Your pooch’s sweet gazes and cuddling greets you in the morning.
It feels great, but you’re wondering…
“What’s up with the morning?”
Why does it make your dog’s affection go over the top?
Read this article to discover:
- Whether anxiety can make a dog cuddly.
- The true reason why your dog is a morning cuddler.
- 9 cute reasons why your dog is affectionate in the morning.
- And a lot more…
Table of contents
- Why is my dog so affectionate in the morning?
- 11 reasons why your dog is so affectionate in the morning
- #1: Your dog’s greeting you
- #2: Your pawed baby feels loved
- #3: Your pooch wants to feel warm
- #4: Fido’s dependent on you
- #5: Your pawed child wants food
- #6: Your furbaby misses you
- #7: Your dog’s jealous
- #8: Your furry child is anxious
- #9: You’re also affectionate
- #10: Your dog adores your sleeping spot
- #11: Your pawed baby wants to strengthen your bond
- Why is my dog so cuddly in the morning?
Why is my dog so affectionate in the morning?
Your dog is so affectionate in the morning because this is your dog’s way to greet you, ask for food, admire your sleeping spot, strengthen your bond or show that they missed you. They could also be anxious, cold, jealous, dependent, imitate you, or feel loved.
11 reasons why your dog is so affectionate in the morning
#1: Your dog’s greeting you
“Rise and shine, hooman! Good noooorning.”
Your dog’s licking your face and snuggling into your blanket. That’s what your dog does as soon as you open your eyes in the mornings.
Fido’s morning clinginess could be their sweet way of greeting you.
Dr. Wailani Sung says that face-licking in the doggy world is their normal way of socializing. Also could be a sign of dogs being affectionate.
They could also be waiting for you to wake up for a while.
Your fur baby might be happy and excited seeing their favorite human finally awake. And being snuggly is their way of conveying it.
Take a look at your pooch’s body posture. Your pawed baby’s happy if their:
- Gaze’s soft.
- Tail’s wagging.
- Ears are down.
- Body’s relaxed.
#2: Your pawed baby feels loved
Do you usually cuddle with your furbaby?
If so, they might admire the feeling of cuddling with you. Which will make pooches wish for more.
It’s possible that Fido’s being snuggly to feel loved as a day starter.
Trivia: Did you know that dogs have the same hormones just like ours during emotional states?
Dogs also produce oxytocin. A.k.a the love hormone we, humans, feel when we kiss or fall in love.
Study shows that both humans and dogs release oxytocin during physical contacts. Cuddling and petting for example.
Oxytocin in dogs has other benefits such as:
- Reduces stress.
- Increases pain tolerance.
- Enhances their well being.
#3: Your pooch wants to feel warm

It feels warm to cuddle, right?
Your dog could be doing it in the morning to feel warm.
Nighttime usually brings cold. It especially feels colder after sunrise.
The weather could also be a factor that makes the environment chilly.
Waking up on a rainy morning for example. That could make your dog who sleeps in their dog bed alone feel cold.
“But dogs have fur.”
That’s technically right. But sometimes the cold will be too much to handle.
Now, let’s look at some of the factors that make your pawed baby cold-sensitive.
Age
Puppies and senior dogs in particular are sensitive to cold. They’ll have a difficult time regulating their body temperatures.
Breed
Some dog breeds are bred to stand cold temperatures. These are usually large dogs with thick furs.
Cold-weather dog breeds are:
- Akita.
- Chow Chow.
- Alaskan Malamute.
- German Shepherd.
- Anatolian Shepherd.
- American Eskimo Dog.
- Bernese Mountain Dog.
- Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.
Hair
If your dog has short and thin fur, then they’ll be vulnerable to cold. Breeds such as Mini Pinscher and Greyhounds’ furs won’t be enough to keep them cold resistant.
Size
Toy breeds are more sensitive when it comes to cold than large ones. Examples are Pug and Chihuahua.
You might have seen Chihuahuas wearing clothes. The reason for that is more than aesthetic, it’s also for keeping these cuties warm.
You’ll know your dog’s feeling cold if they start to:
- Shiver.
- Whine.
- Slow down.
- Look for a warm place.
Say you sleep with a warm blanket. Aside from that, your body produces its own heat that could be a perfect warmer for your canine baby.
So, as your dog looks for a warm place, they might find staying with you in the bed the best option.
#4: Fido’s dependent on you
Dogs being clingy is more than for affection sometimes.
It could also be a learned behavior of relying on their person.
Research suggests that domestic dogs remain human-dependent throughout their life.
This dependency behavior often starts during puppyhood. For example, puppies can pick up the trait as they ask for food and their person provides it.
As a result, they’ll develop the concept that their humans will provide for their needs.
Some pooches will become anxious if their humans are away. Their human leaving will make them worry that their resources will be gone too.
And sometimes, human dependency gets too much. For example, an overly dependent pooch may have separation anxiety. It’ll make dogs show destructive behavior if their person’s away.
It could affect their socialization too. They won’t socialize with other dogs because they’ll be too anxious that their humans will leave them.
#5: Your pawed child wants food
Have you ever felt hungry when you wake up in the morning?
It’s most likely to happen if you ate early dinner and had long hours of sleep.
This could be the same for pooches.
Your dog could be showing you affection in the morning to tell you they’re hungry.
Dr. Llera says that dogs, just like humans, have simple stomach anatomy. An empty stomach begins to send signals to the brain after about 8 to 10 hours.
Which makes a hungry dog become clingy as their own polite way of asking for food.
They could develop this behavior if they’ve been cuddly before and you gave them treats.
Now, if they felt hungry in the morning. They’ll cuddle you because they think that you’ll give them food for acting that way.
It worked before so they could be thinking this will be successful again.
You may also like: Why does my dog stare at me when I eat? 9 reasons
#6: Your furbaby misses you

“I’ve been away for so long. It’s time to reunite, human.”
Showing clinginess in the morning could mean that they missed you during the night.
You could’ve trained them to sleep in their dog bed. So, at night they won’t be able to feel your presence.
And that could make Fido feel the separation anxiety while you’re asleep. Making them eager to be with you when the morning comes.
Or this might be their only opportunity to be affectionate with you.
Let’s say you always leave home early and return home late.
“Let me sneak in some love on your busy schedule, hooman.”
Your dog may observe that morning is the only time to be snuggly. When you’re still on the bed and doing nothing.
A friend of mine has a Pug, Charmy, which is a morning cuddler.
The reason behind that is her fur mom leaves for school early on weekdays.
So what Charmy would do is wake up earlier than my friend. Then, she goes straight to her furmom’s bed.
She’d cuddle her human until the moment she wakes up. After that, Charmy moves away if her person gets up and prepares to leave.
It may appear to be a mystery… but dogs can pick up cues from their human’s actions.
So, maybe Charmy notices that when my friend sets up her alarm clock then it means she’ll leave in the morning.
She gets really cuddly on weekday mornings. And gets less cuddly on weekends.
Probably because there’s no alarm going off, indicating my friend should go somewhere. So Charmy’s aware she can cuddle her furmom anytime she wants during the day.
#7: Your dog’s jealous
Some dogs who’re used to getting a lot of affection and attention will demand it.
Let’s say a new baby or puppy joins your family.
Of course, that’ll divide the whole family’s attention. Which might make your dog aware and feel that they’re not getting the attention they used to.
So, some dogs will work for that attention and love. They might do this first thing in the morning to make sure they’ll be the first in line.
It’s their way of securing their human’s attention and affection to them and not to others.
Research proves that dogs show jealous behavior when their person’s affectionate to other beings.
A jealous dog may exhibit:
- Nudging.
- Air snaps.
- Not leaving their person’s side.
- Getting in between their human and other beings.
#8: Your furry child is anxious
Pooches mostly get anxious because of their intense abilities.
Think about this.
Some dogs get anxious because of the smell of rain. Dr. Curtis mentions that it’s because dogs can smell the change in air temperature even before it rains.
Other pooches may trigger their anxiety if they hear loud noises. PennVet says that dogs’ sensitivity to noise is what causes this to happen.
You see, most of their anxiety triggers because of their special senses. So, observe your surroundings.
Because your dog might be sensing something that triggers their anxiety.
Dr. Sung says that changes in your dog’s surroundings can make your furbaby be affectionate all of a sudden. Such noises in the environment that trigger a dog’s anxiety.
Other signs of anxiety in dogs are:
- Pacing.
- Panting.
- Drooling.
- Depression.
- Aggression.
- Excessive barking.
- Destructive behavior.
- Urinating or defecating in the house.
#9: You’re also affectionate
Are you a clingy type of fur parent?
Because you might’ve taught your dog to be clingy in the morning.
Dr. Pendergrass said that a dog’s clinginess is often a learned behavior. Dogs learn to behave like this from you by how you interact with them.
Let’s say you always start your day by hugging and kissing your dog. And you’ve been doing this ever since your dog’s still a puppy.
As your pooch grows older, they’ll develop and adopt the clingy behavior.
And because you do it every morning when you both wake up. So they’ll learn to associate mornings with cuddles.
It’ll become a part of your dog’s morning routine.
Given that, your pawed child won’t miss morning cuddles. Because dogs love routines and they usually stick with it.
Study shows that a dog and dog parent’s routine is a positive trigger for emotional closeness.
There are also dog breeds that are prone to be clingy and these are:
- Pug.
- Maltese.
- Border Collie.
- Hungarian Vizsla.
- Italian Greyhound.
- Labrador Retriever.
- Doberman Pinscher.
#10: Your dog adores your sleeping spot

Your dog’s affection in the morning could also be because of where you sleep.
Some dogs can be attracted to soft objects. As much as they do to plush toys and stuffed animals.
Let’s say you have soft pillows and a textured blanket. Your dog might adore it.
They might feel relaxed to lay on those with their favorite human during the mornings.
You’ll be able to tell if your dog’s relaxed through their body posture.
How?
Your dog’s eyes will appear soft, tongue out and tails wagging in a gentle manner.
#11: Your pawed baby wants to strengthen your bond
Your dog is a morning cuddler because they want to make your bond stronger.
Cuddling is a way of connecting and building a relationship with each other.
Physical connection with humans makes pooches more energetic and happier.
A study suggests that dog parents can be a secure base for dogs. It makes dogs move freely and increases their social behavior. Particularly if a dog and a dog parent have a strong bond.
An established strong bond will make dogs clingy on a regular basis to maintain it. They’ll mostly ask for:
- Petting.
- Cuddling.
- Snuggling.
- Leaning on you.
Why is my dog so cuddly in the morning?
Your dog is so cuddly in the morning because they’re craving affection. Dogs who don’t sleep beside their dog parents will mostly become morning cuddlers.
You might train your dog to sleep on their dog bed. Since the night separates them from you, they’ll crave your presence in the morning.
And the root of this behavior is their attachment and love for you. Cuddling with you in the morning might be one of their ways of showing it.