11 Reasons Your Dog Rests Its Head on You

One of my favorite moments of dog ownership is the day a dog feels comfortable enough with you to rest their head on you. Whether they are resting their head on your knee, your lap, or just your hand, there are few moments that compare to that feeling.

For me, I know that I don’t even want to move when they do it because it’s just so adorable.

But did you know that there’s actually some reasoning behind why they do it? When your pup rests its head on you, it’s oftentimes coming down to affection, or comfort. It can also just mean the obvious: they want something from you.

With that said, there are quite a few other reasons your pup is displaying this behavior. Let’s take a look at the most common reasons your dog is resting its head on you, starting with the most logical.

Let’s start with the most obvious reason. Your dog is showing you that they love you. When your dog has chosen you as their person, they will start displaying that in a number of different ways. Physical touch is just one of those ways.

So, when your dog starts looking up at you with those puppy dog eyes, just know that there’s some actual science behind it.

In fact, did you know that when you lock eyes with your dog, something actually happens with our own body chemistry as humans?

Studies have shown that when dogs and their humans interact with each other through physical contact or other positive interactions, both dogs and people experience an elevated level of oxytocin.

This is the “feel-good” hormone that’s linked to better emotional well-being. So, just know that if your dog rests its head against you, it’s not only because they love you. But there’s some science backing the theory that these interactions can improve your well-being.

Whether it’s because your dog is comfortable with you or, frankly, they just want to use your lap or your knee or any part of your body like a pillow, it could just be that your dog is comfortable.

If you’ve noticed that your dog rests their head against cushions, blankets, piles of clothes (or other soft things), it’s quite possible that your dog is treating you as something that they want to just rest their head against because they’re comfortable.

They might be getting ready for a midday nap or settling in for sleep. Some dogs like to have their head and chin in an elevated position. Having their head rest on you may just make a difference with their comfort levels.

You might notice this because they’re sitting with their legs stretched out, or they’re curled up and getting ready to take a nap. But ultimately, this could just be because they’re comfortable, and you have a soft lap. Your leg might be the exact perfect height for them to lie against. Some dogs simply like to support their head.

So, if you’re giving them a comfortable place to land, that could be a driving factor. It could also be that they’re just comfortable with you personally as their human. They might be using this again as a way to display a little bit of affection.

Sometimes body heat is the reason. If you like to keep your house cold, or if it’s a colder time of year, it could just be that your body feels warmer. Your body heat is radiating and keeping your dog cozy.

If your pup snuggles more during the winter months rather than the summer months, this is likely a reason. In fact, we have a dog that, during the winter months, likes to lie close, on the bed with us.

Or she will lie right next to us on the couch, head right on our laps. But then when the summer comes, she’s on our hardwood floors, tile, or anywhere she can keep cool.

So it could just be a temperature thing because, as mammals, we like to seek comfort. Don’t be surprised if your dog decides to try and cuddle up next to you a little bit more in the winter versus in the summer months.

It could be that your dog just wants you to pet them. Sometimes this will be shown because your dog rests its head on you. It could also be that they’re putting their head right underneath your hands. They might nuzzle your hands. Or, push their nose up against you in an effort to show you that they want you to pet them.

One of our dogs is an English Mastiff and Labrador mix. She will constantly paw at us and put her head on your knee, or put her face in your hand. You could be standing there, and she’ll walk behind you and she’ll nuzzle your hand because she wants attention.

If I’m lying on the couch, she’s jumping up on the couch. She’s putting her head right on my lap to get me to pet her. Pretty much any time she’s around, she wants me to be touching her. And she’s learned that if she does this, she will most oftentimes actually get petted.

So it is quite common that your dog is putting its head on you because they want to be petted. And you’ve probably shown them that they can get attention by doing this, if they put their head against you.

It’s quite possible your dog just needs something from you. If you’ve noticed their head resting on you and you’ve rewarded it by throwing a ball or getting their favorite toy or feeding them, you’ve reinforced the behavior.

They’ve learned that when they put their head on you, you’re giving them the thing that they need. So it’s a way of them communicating with you that they actually need something from you.

We have a dog that does this with her favorite ball. She will just come up to you and she will put the ball right in your lap. She will then put her head on you, looking at you until you actually throw it. So she’s basically learned that she needs something from me and she can show me by doing this.

If it’s also time for breakfast or time for dinner, she’ll put her head right on you and look at you and sit there. Basically, her way of communicating to you that she wants something.

So think of this as not just a way of showing affection or endearment, but basically telling you, “Hey, I want something, and you need to get it for me.”

Similar to showing that they need something from you, it could just be that they’ve learned whatever they’re doing actually works. So if your dog puts its head on you, how do you respond to that?

If you stop working in the middle of your workday to talk to them, or to pet them or to rub their ears or to give them affection, you’ve reinforced the behavior. You’ve shown them that whatever they’re doing is working. If they get a treat every time they put their head on you, you’ve reinforced the behavior.

This is common with lots of things. It might be them putting their paw on you. And obviously, as owners, we will sometimes train our dogs to do things like this purposely. We do it when we’re teaching them to shake. Or when we teach them to “place” and go to their place.

But it can be a learned behavior because you’ve just taught them that if they do this, they will get a reward out of it, and so they’re gonna continue to do it.

Sometimes it’s just part of the routine. It might be that you’re in a particular chair, or it might be that it’s a particular time of day. Like, it could be dinnertime, and it just happens.

If they see you sit down in a chair and they come over and they put their head on you, and it happens every single time, it’s become part of the routine.

If it’s dinnertime and you’re sitting down near the kitchen and they know it’s dinnertime, and they come up to you, tail wagging, and put their head in your lap and start looking up at you, it’s now part of the routine.

Sometimes that happens because they seem to know when it’s time for everybody to settle in. It might be time to go to bed. One of our dogs, when it’s time to go to bed and we’ve let them out for the last time, will come straight in and put their head on you. She’ll just stare at you thinking “hey, it’s time for bed.” She’s learned that this is part of our routine.

Sometimes it’s more anxiety-driven. If they’re in an unfamiliar situation, or there’s a storm, or maybe it’s a noisy gathering, they might be looking to you for a little bit of reassurance. And so you might find this different than an ordinary time of cuddling.

They might come up to you and put their head on you and continuously nuzzle. They may continuously move their head around or continuously nudge you with their head.

And they’re just looking for a little bit of security from you, for you to say, “Hey, this is okay. Things are okay. You can feel a little bit more comfortable.”

They might be looking for you to pet them or to soothe them with your voice. But, any of these things might indicate that they’re just looking for a little bit of confidence from their owner. They just want to know that the situation that they’re in is going to be okay. They want to be safe.

I mentioned earlier that a lot of dogs have a bedtime routine. It’s not uncommon for a dog, when they’re tired, to show you that they are ready to go to sleep, just like us as humans do.

So if your dog is coming inside and putting their head on you and it’s evening time, they might just be telling you, “Hey, I’m tired. It’s time for us to go to bed. And at the same time, I want you to be with me.”

And so if you’re like us and your dog sleeps next to you in the bedroom on their own dog bed, they may be coming up to you and putting their head against you, saying, “Hey, it’s time for all of us to go to bed, but I’m not going to go in there until you’re there with me,” because they want to be next to you and they feel close to you.

So if this is part of your normal nighttime routine, it’s quite common. They’re just using this as a way of communicating to you that, “Hey, pal, I’m exhausted.”

Just like humans, when dogs start to age, they start having different behaviors as a result. And sometimes when your dog is getting older, they’ll just start to be a little bit more endearing.

It doesn’t always mean that there is a problem or that they’re sick or there’s something wrong. It could just be that they’re getting a little bit older and they’ve chosen this as their new way of communicating with you.

So if you’ve noticed that your dog is doing it more as they have grown older, that’s actually something that I’ve noticed with one of my dogs who was less affectionate when they were younger and became more affectionate as they’ve grown in age.

So it could just be that they’re getting a little bit older. They’ve always been comfortable with you, but for whatever reason, as they’ve grown older, they’ve decided to communicate with you in a different way. And that could include putting their head on you more frequently.

And the last, less common reason is, frankly, they just don’t feel well. Sometimes when dogs are sick or start getting an illness that’s negatively impacting them, they will try and tell you, as their person, that they just don’t feel good.

And this might be by putting their head against you. You might hear them whimpering or trying to actually talk to you. There are several common ways that dogs can do this, and a lot of times they’re just seeking comfort.

So you might see them want a lot more contact than normal. They might feel a little bit more needy. And if your dog is old, or if this is happening and you’re noticing other things that might make you feel like they’re struggling with their overall wellness, it might be time to visit a vet.

Most times, laying their head on you comes from signs of affection, as we’ve talked about, but there is the odd time where it will be because they just don’t feel well, and it might be time to visit with a professional.

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