There's An Emotional Reason Why Our Pups Lick Mouths

Dogs are a good judge of character. When they ‘sense’ that a person is not friendly, they seem to be able to tell. Ever wonder why your dog does that “mouth-lick?”

Well, some researchers from the University of Lincoln in the UK and the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil did a study and found out why! The scientists looked at how dogs responded to what they called “emotionally significant” images and sounds. They discovered that “mouth-licking’ is related to hunger and uncertainty. They found that it is also used to try and communicate with people the dogs think are angry.

The dogs were shown human or canine faces that were either showing negative or positive emotions. At the same time, the dogs were exposed to a sound that matched the expression – positive or negative. The sounds were of the same species and gender of the images they were shown. The dogs all reacted to the negative human expressions by mouth-licking, but the angry human voices did not cause any mouth licking.

Natalia Albuquerque, the lead author of the study, said that the dogs did not mouth-lick as much when they saw the faces of angry canines. She said that this result meant that mouth-licking behavior is associated with how dogs perceive negative emotions. The authors also hypothesized that dogs have the ability to understand emotional information. A little food for thought – right?! If you want to read the study for yourself, it was published in the journal called Behavioural Processes.

Feature Image Source: Pixabay