But that isn't why dogs' noses always wet

[IAmBroom]

I googled this question, Why are dogs’ noses always wet? (more or less), and was delighted to see that The Straight Dope had covered it! “At last, I will know,” I thought to myself…

According to SD veterinarian DrMat:

“Most of the time, though, a bright, happy dog will continually lick his nose (and you, the air, and his private parts; it’s not like they’re discriminating) and so the nose is wet. When the dog isn’t feeling well, he tends not to lick his nose, and the nose is dry.”

Sigh.

Dog noses are wet whether or not they’ve recently licked them. They aren’t wet from tongue saliva; my dog awakens wet-nosed. They have mucus glands on their surface, that keep them wet.

It takes about 5 minutes of observation to dispute DrMat’s theory.

Another link from my Google site tossed out two other theories, one of which makes sense to me:

It is believed that a dog’s wet nose also makes it a better sniffer. In other words, research shows that the wet nose of a dog helps it to make better use of its sense of smell.

The same link seems more interested in the theory that a damp nose helps regulate a dog’s body temperature; again, this is quickly debunked. Check a resting dog’s nose in the chill air of winter, and you will discover it is still damp. Ergo, it isn’t an effective means of lowering excess body temperature; we don’t turn the air conditioning on when it gets too cold inside. And why would it be? At most, a square inch of skin, on the wrong side of the nasal cavity for the constant in/out of breath, and that’s supposed to help cool my 55-lb dog? Nature builds better heat vents than that: the tongue (and, I suspect, blood flow on the bare belly, as a secondary process).

I’m buying the auxiliary scent-sniffing mechanism. After all, my dog goes nose-first into every wet clump of goo he finds. If he were actually sniffing, he’d get a nose full of muddy water half the time. But if his nose can smell merely by being dragged through the mess, then his actions make more sense.

Thoughts? I’d be happy to be proven wrong, if someone can overpower me with the awesome might of their arguments… but the report left me kinda “meh”, sadly.

[KinkiNipponTourist]

@IAmBroom

I googled this question, Why are dogs’ noses always wet? (more or less), and was delighted to see that The Straight Dope had covered it! “**At last, I will know,” I thought to myself…**According to SD veterinarian DrMat:

<snip>

**Sigh. **
Dog noses are wet whether or not they’ve recently licked them. They aren’t wet from tongue saliva; my dog awakens wet-nosed. They have mucus glands on their surface, that keep them wet.

It takes about 5 minutes of observation to dispute DrMat’s theory.
Another link from my Google site tossed out two other theories, one of which makes sense to me:
The same link seems more interested in the theory that a damp nose helps regulate a dog’s body temperature; again, this is quickly debunked. Check a resting dog’s nose in the chill air of winter, and you will discover it is still damp. Ergo, it isn’t an effective means of lowering excess body temperature; we don’t turn the air conditioning on when it gets too cold inside. And why would it be? At most, a square inch of skin, on the wrong side of the nasal cavity for the constant in/out of breath, and that’s supposed to help cool my 55-lb dog? Nature builds better heat vents than that: the tongue (and, I suspect, blood flow on the bare belly, as a secondary process).

<snip>

Thoughts? I’d be happy to be proven wrong, if someone can overpower me with the awesome might of their arguments… but the report left me kinda “meh”, sadly.

Hiya IAmBroom, welcome to the Straight Dope!

First off, thank you for your explanation. I didn’t know why dogs’ noses were wet.

But I have a question. While you start out saying you breathlessly clicked on the link to finally learn the answer, it immediately becomes apparent (“sigh.”) that you already know the answer. You say so in the title of your post, and go on to explain right after the bit from the link. You also explain (pretty convincingly, I thought) why other theories are not satisfactory explanations either.

So what was it that you looked forward to learning?

[hogarth]

@KinkiNipponTourist

Hiya IAmBroom, welcome to the Straight Dope!

First off, thank you for your explanation. I didn’t know why dogs’ noses were wet.

But I have a question. While you start out saying you breathlessly clicked on the link to finally learn the answer, it immediately becomes apparent (“sigh.”) that you already know the answer. You say so in the title of your post, and go on to explain right after the bit from the link. You also explain (pretty convincingly, I thought) why other theories are not satisfactory explanations either.

So what was it that you looked forward to learning?

He didn’t know the answer beforehand. He Googled the question and got one answer (from the Straight Dope) that was obviously wrong and another answer that seemed more plausible from another site.

[IAmBroom]

@hogarth

He didn’t know the answer beforehand. He Googled the question and got one answer (from the Straight Dope) that was obviously wrong and another answer that seemed more plausible from another site.

Correct!

One doesn’t have to know X, in order to debunk a false statement about X. Fortunately.

The nose-skin-as-scent-organ theory occurred to me, but merely as a guess. It sounds like it (might) have been established as fact.