Surely if you have a dog you know very well what it means to get home and that your puppy jumps on you to kiss you and lick you, while waving his tail with joy. Dogs lick our hands and even jump to kiss us on the mouth, a great sign of affection but is it wrong for my dog to suck me?
Despite the multitude of urban legends that circulate by word of mouth or through social networks, the truth is that it is not healthy for our dog to have contact with our face or mouth. We will explain everything in detail to see the dangers involved.
Index of contents
- 1 What does it mean for my dog to kiss me?
- 2 Is it dangerous for my dog to kiss my face or my lips?
- 3 Should I scold my dog if he kisses me? Should I avoid being licked?
- 4 Can a dog kiss children?
What does it mean for my dog to kiss me?
Dogs lick each other as a sign of affection or submission, also to clean or heal their own wound or that of another member of the herd. When a dog licks us humans, it is showing its love, submission, or respect.
Although we should not forget that the smell of a dog is thousands of times superior to that of a human, if we have eaten something that our dog finds attractive … it will also try to lick us simply because it is interested in tasting a little of that food (or the remains that may remain in our hands or mouth).
On the other hand, dogs also lick each other as a cleaning and affection, just as they do with their puppies. Who has not seen a dog lick her puppy to satiety?
So a lick as we have explained, is always a good sign on the part of our dog. It is a loving way of showing us something, of letting us know that he is at our disposal and loves us.
Is it dangerous for my dog to kiss my face or my lips?
Despite urban legends that indicate that dogs’ saliva is antiseptic and that their mouth is free of bacteria…. the truth is it can be dangerous for our dog’s saliva to come in contact with our face or our mouth / lips.
Dogs spend the day licking their genitals and the genitals of other dogs, as it is a form of socialize between dogs. They also eat endless crap on the floor and stick their snouts in the most unsuspected places…. So neither a dog’s mouth nor saliva is antiseptic or clean.
A dog’s saliva contains many more bacteria than a human’s saliva, many of these bacteria are harmful to humans. It can also contain parasites that can infect us if their saliva comes into contact with our face. That our dog transmits a virus to us just by sucking us is something more complex, but it is possible.
So it is scientifically proven that it is not healthy for humans, that a dog licks its face or lips. Those kisses that our dog gives us in the mouth in a loving way, pose a risk to our health.
Should I scold my dog if he kisses me? Should I avoid being licked?
No, you don’t have to push things to the extreme. If our dog licks our hands, arms or even feet…. absolutely nothing happens. We simply must wash our hands before eating, to clean the possible dirt that we have in them.
However, it is advisable to prevent our dog from licking our faces. The skin on the face is more sensitive to bacteria and parasites than the rest of the skin on our body, so it poses a greater risk. In the same way, we must avoid that our dog kisses us on the mouth, because his saliva will come into contact with ours and would pose a risk.
We should not scold our dog for licking us because it is as if we scold him for telling us that he loves us. We simply must know how to handle the situation and avoid its licks being on the face or lips, otherwise … we must enjoy it as always.
Can a dog kiss children?
Of course you can, although we should teach children to wash their hands afterwards (before eating). What we must avoid is that the dog licks the face or mouth of the children, in the same way that we must prevent it from doing it with us.
It is scientifically proven that children who live with animals have a much more developed immune system, that is, stronger. Living with animals that are properly dewormed and have their immunizations up to date, it is a benefit for any child.
Furthermore, the child’s emotional system and its responsibility towards animals will also develop properly. We must teach them to respect from childhood, so that when they are adults they know how to love them as we love them.