[Joianne]

A little background is:

We had a greyhound which we had to put to peace in December because of bone cancer. So we're used to semi calm dogs. He was a sweetie and very affectionate but not like this....
last month we rescued a black lab mix from the shelter. He is just under 2years old and He is AMAZING! Fully "programed" (trained) I couldn't of asked for better to be with our 5 year old. I miss our grey but we thought something a little more playful for our son would help him a bit. We're all still missing our grey soooo much.
Among the million cute things he does, like give hugs and making sure we know he loves us he paws our face. He'll be laying with us or giving hugs and he just lifts up his paw and almost "rubs" our face with it. WHY? It hurts and we want to break him of this but I don't want to discipline a sign of affection (if thats what it is) in the wrong way. He was humping when he first got here and we were able to stop that easily. So this won't be too hard but I'm curious to see if anyone else has had this problem, and if they knew why dogs did this.

[skunkstripe]

You are right, it is a sign of affection or possibly appeasement. YOur dog means well. Try gently taking his paw and putting it onthe floor and when it is on the floor, say "good dog". Be sure to be very patient.
Does your dog know the "shake" command? Sometimes it helps to say "shake" so the dog understands that there is a time to lift the paw and a time not to.

[opossum]

Just teach him not to do that. There are plenty of ways for him to show affection. You won't hurt his feelings.