Is Your Dog Kissing You?

What's it like for a dog to experience life amidst the smells, sounds and sights from two feet off the ground? What's it like to smell not just every bit of open food anywhere but also to smell sadness and disease in humans? What's it like for a dog to use his mouth as a hand?

I just picked up a book (published years ago), Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz, and found that these questions can be answered based on an ethologist's observation of dogs.

Alexandra Horowitz was in training as an ethologist, a scientist of animal behavior, observing white rhinoceros at the Wild Animal Park in Escondido and the bonobos (pygmy chimpanzee) at the Park and the San Diego Zoo when she realized that dogs are even more unique, as she was casually observing her own dogs at the dog parks. They bounce from socializing with other dogs and socializing with people very fluently. She joined a myriad of other curious ethologists studying working and companion dogs, using the process and results of science to gain a better understanding of what makes dogs the special creatures that they are.

First, Horowitz tells us, we need to stop anthropomorphising animal behavior. We imagine our dogs' behavior from a human-biased perspective, imposing our own emotions on their actions. We imagine our dogs getting bored, jealous or depressed based on their mournful eyes, loud sighs and standoffishness. We may not always be wrong with our attributions. It might be true that our dog is sad, jealous or depressed or it might be that he/she is just hungry. For instance, the "smile" on our dog can be misleading (more about happy dogs in another blog). On dolphins, the smile is a fixed physiological feature similar to the smile on The Joker (a Batman reference). On chimpanzees, a grin is a sign of fear or submission. For this reason, I will be writing short essays on what I've learned about dogs as I read from this book so we can understand our dogs more.

Using "umwelt" (OOM-velt) which describes seeing the world as a dog would, for example, a rose is not viewed as a human would: a kind of flower, a gift between lovers, a thing of beauty or the plant that needs to be pruned. How the dog views the rose depends upon the construction of the dog, both in body and brain. A rose is indistinguishable from the other plant matter around it - unless it has been urinated upon by another dog, stepped on by another animal or handled by the dog's owner. Then, the rose is far more significant and interesting to the dog. We can't even experientially imagine the world through the dog's view until our senses are as astute as the dog! So, Horowitz and other ethologists have to use information about the lineage as well.

This brings us to dog kisses - those slobbery licks to the face; focused licking of the hand; solemn tongue-flicking on the leg. Do dogs lick us as a sign of affection? It sure seems like kisses to me!

Researchers of wild canids (wolves, coyotes, foxes and other wild dogs) report that puppies lick the face and muzzle of their mother when she returned from a hunt in order to get her to regurgitate for them. Licking, in this case, seems to stimulate the mother to vomit up partially digested meat. I think we can make the leap that our pups don't expect half-eaten meat when they lick us!

Our mouths taste great to dogs. Dogs have taste receptors for salty, sweet, bitter, sour and even umami but their perception of sweetness is processed slightly differently than ours. Salt enhances the experience of sweet tastes. For wild animals, this may be to distinguish between ripe and non-ripe plants and fruit. For dogs, our salty sweat and saliva is pretty delicious.

The good news is that, as a result of this FUNCTIONAL use of mouth licking, "kissing" has become a ritualized greeting. It no longers serves as a method to ask for food. Instead, it is used now to say "Hello" and "Where have you been?". Dogs and wolves muzzle-lick to welcome another dog back home and to get a report of where the homecomer has been or what he has done. Mothers not only clean their pups by licking; they often give a few licks when reuniting after a brief time apart. A younger or timid dog may lick the muzzle of a bigger, threatening dog to appease him. Since these "greeting licks" are often accompanied by wagging tails, mouths opened playfully and excitement, it appears that one can conclude that licks are a way to express happiness.

So, yes, dogs do kiss as we do in greeting! What do they think when we don't lick them back?