I don’t mind if a dog licks my face. In my defense, I have heard many times in my life that their mouths are cleaner than ours. Obviously not if they just licked something nasty.About all of my boyfriends (about none of my girl friends)have found this practice to be appalling and gross. Aren’t we the ones that are supposed to be afraid of germs? The worm argument, however, is kinda convincing. What are the chances of that? So is it safe and sanitary or what? My username has nothing to do w/ anything like this. No I don’t have a fascination w/ animal saliva. I don’t think. Do I?
Welcome to the boards, and all that.
No, you don’t get worms from dog drool. And the whole “whose mouth is germier” debate is a bit iffy.(Dogs: higher acidity. People: brush teeth regularly.)
The best reason to not let a dog lick your face is 'cause that’s where the teeth are. That’s the big thing. If you don’t let a dog lick your face, it can’t (accidentally) bite you in your face.
I’m not too phased by dog licks, myself. I’ve shared an ice cream cone with my dog. (I get a lick, she gets a lick. No biting.) Katcha (my 14 month old boy) thinks it’s just hysterical when Lucy (the rediculously small dog) licks his face and mouth (a classic submissive behaviour- go figure).
The whole dog licking thing is about as “safe and sanitary” as anything else you normally do with your mouth. If your boyfriends don’t like it, ask 'em where their mouths have been recently.
-Rue.
I’ve never heard of getting worms from doggie kisses, that’s a new one on me. I don’t particularly worry about germs & such anyway. I’ve always thought the fear of “catching something” from a dog was a bit of an old wive’s tale. If anyone has solid info on precisely what one can catch from a dog that would be interesting. There’s the ick factor of having a dog lick you right after its been cleaning its butt, of course. I think that’s a valid reason to not want a dog licking your face.
I don’t mind them, & like Rue I share icecream licks with my dogs too. Licking is submissive behaviour by dogs, especially face licks. Watch a puppy interacting with an adult dog…a properly respectful pup will lick the face & mouth of the elder. When a dog does that to you it’s being submissive.
Yes, you can get diseases from dog’s mouths, including some some pretty horrrendous helminth infections. At least one species of tapeworm and several species of roundworm are commonly transmitted this way. One of these can cause blindness, sterility and brain damage so it’s not a minor disease. If your dog is wormed regularly the chances of contracting anything is slim. But remember that your dog commonly sniffs other dog’s bums, licks it’s own bum, and eats carrion, faeces, dirt, unidentified leavings from behind the couch and raw vegetation. You would never dream of letting such things near your mouth for good reason. Letting your dog lick you after he’s put them in his mouth isn’t a good idea.
This site provides some factual support for the notion that you can get roundworms from dog saliva:
http://www.pets.telstra.com/templates/storytemplate_process.cfm?story_no=196
This site discusses hydatid tapeworms: http://www.petsdoc.com/html/askthevet/askthevetquestions/hydatidcysts.html
This makes it quite clear you can get bacterial infections from dog saliva.
A slightly more refined googol search or a quick check of any parisitology text willl find you many more references.
Reason enough not to let your dog kiss you. I have personally seen a dog lick its butt for a minute or so, then run over to lick a laughing toddler on its face and in its mouth. All under the “watchful eyes” of his parents, who thought it was “adorable”. I pointed out that this was not too far away from smearing dog feces on their kid’s face, and their response was:
Uhhh…touché, I guess. shudder
FWIW, I’m a guy, and my Dog kisses me every day. We’re both quite clean and healthy, thank you very much!
I do have something worthwhile, though: I don’t think I’m being prejudiced when I say I’ve never seen my Dog eat poop and don’t believe she ever licks her butt and so on. I would suggest that Dogs that do that have problems with being clean, nutrition, and things like that which would lead them not intake or eliminate properly.
Eating faeces is very much a personality thing. Some dogs do, some don’t.
Licking their genitals and anus is something that all canids do. That’s all domestic dogs, wolves, foxes, coyotes etc. It’s a grooming procedure and unless you have specifically disciplined it out of your dog he/she will be doing it. Like most grooming it’s one of those things animals do when bored so it’s more likely to be done when you’re not around.
Eating almost anything vaguely edible in an experimental manner is simply a sign of curiosity in a dog. Unless your dog is retarded I’ll garauntee she/he is doing it. Again it’s largely boredom induced so you may not see it. Eating grass and other vegetation is instinctive behaviour in dogs and would have to be disciplined out. Are you saying that your dog never chews up a ball, bone or stick that has been lying on the ground? If it does then try picking up the peices after he’s finished. Some of it wil have been swallowed. Even if it wasn’t swallowed of course the fact that the toy has been rolling in whatever is on the ground, including faeces, is bad enough. If your dog doesn’t chew on toys then you need to start letting it do so. Not chewing damages its teeth, weakens its jaw muscles and aside from that leaves the dog bored silly.
The fact that your dog licks your face and you’re healthy is meaningless. Do you know how many times you’ve been sick due to dog induced illness? How could you tell? Ever had an ear infection, skin rash, fever, runny nose, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, jaundice or joint pain since your dog has been licking your face? If the answer is yes then you could well have developed doggy infection. Added to this of couse hydatid cysts in healthy people could go unnoticed for years. This is one of the most common nonsensical arguments seen against any hygeine practice and could easily be applied to hand washing. If you get ill at all with anything that isn’t airborne then you’re probably doing something wrong hygeine-wise.
That’s what I love about this board; I just learn so much here! I honestly didn’t know you could get worms from dog licks. I don’t particularly like real “licky” dogs & don’t encourage it. I will say, though, that I have had not ONE of the symptoms Gaspode mentioned in the last decade, except one bout of food poisoning (from cottage cheese.) And I have had precisely three colds/bugs/flus/weird sicknesses since 1973, when I was 14 & got a serious flu bug. Our immune system is a family joke; none of us hardly ever get sick, and I personally eschew antibacterial products.
Anyhow back OT. My mom always used to tell me that letting a dog lick a cut or sore would “clean & disinfect” it. About a month ago The Lancet (British medical journal) apparently published a study stating just that…I tried finding the link but their registration process is terribly cumbersome.
Having said that, I would not let a dog of mine regularly slurp all over a child, or anyone else for that matter because of the ick factor.