Thanks Kathy…it sucks…IMHO, pets are a part of the family, and although they can’t loan you money, or babysit your kids, they can, and do, give you their undying love. Sometimes, that’s better than family. I’ll take a butt wiped tongue anyday for that kind of devotion.
Who says the dog can’t babysit the kids? 
My parents’ siamese gives kisses. Every morning, just once a day, he walks up to you and presses his mouth against yours. After a quick smooch, he’s satisfied and goes back to whatever cat-stuff he was doing.
And I love cat kisses.
Ah ha! This part of ** Triss’s** link backs up what I’ve thought since I got a dog (she’s 15).
[quote]
One other thing that we always have to bear in mind when pet dogs are involved is learning. Psychologist BF Skinner immortalized the concept that rewards increase the probability of a response if they are given after the response. So it is with licking. If a dog licks his owner’s face – perhaps as a vestige of maternal lip licking, out of anxiety or just because the owner’s face is salty – and his behavior is greeted with attention, hugs and (human) kisses, and sing-song praise, he will likely repeat the behavior. Almost any behavior can be reinforced (strengthened) in this way, face licking included.**
Dogs lick because someone taught them that it’s an action that will earn then favorable results. I’m willing to bet there are a lot of other dog owners out there who hate to be licked, and have dogs who don’t lick.
Princess and Pete(12ish) do not attempt to lick people.** At all**. When they were younger the typical reaction to puppy licks was " Eww, gross!!" <push puppy away> By the time we’d had them each a year they’d learned that nothing good ever comes of licking the humans, so they stopped doing it. They don’t even seem to have any desires to lick anything but their feet and hind ends, so they aren’t being forced to surpress some sort of deep-seated canine desire to socialize with their tongues. I plan to teach any other dogs I might have not to lick, by not encouraging the behavior, as well.
If only lack of encouragement worked on the damn hand-licking cats!
!!! Sorry to hijack, but I have a need to know! Presumably, this can go in both directions … Is this a dog thing, or are cats susceptible/potential carriers as well? Anybody know???