But if you don't ask you never know!!

Why do dogs lick?  I remember being told as a little girl that it was for the salt on your hands but I've always wondered why dogs can go into a rapture and lick and lick and lick.....(and lick and lick!!!)  :-)

Glazby will start off by licking my hand then when I've had enough he'll move onto OH and will wash his face, neck, ears, head (OH is far more tolerant than me - even though I point out where Glazby's tongue has previously been)!!

Is it because he loves us and is grooming us as part of a pack or any other reason??

I really do have the most strangest questions come to me in the middle of the night!!

ive always thought its a sign of affection and pack status, the dog looks up to his master, and shows it through licking?

something like that lol!

:D :D :D

Dudley does the same i dont mind the odd lick but object to him washing my teeth when i'm giggling.

He washes OH face and licks bath water of me :rolleyes:

We have resided ourselves to the fact that dudley has decided his place is on the bed with us, but he is sneaky and knows to wait til we are asleep.

Hope this is a love thing and not him trying to claim the bed for himself :p

Lou

Think its cos they love us :-D

Jean

Yep, Glazby likes to lick me dry after a bath too!!  :)

It just makes me laugh as he'll start standing over me or OH and licking us and then he'll get so immersed in it that he'll end up laying ontop of us with a paw either side of our heads and his eyes will be half closed - he really does look as if he loves it!!!  Over 4 stone of dog and you find that you can't actually get away either!!!

OH will sit and gently nibble Glazby's ear (don't know whether I should be admitting this or not on CD)!!!!! but Glaz loves it and will close his eyes and sigh contentedly!!  :D

I like to think it's because they love us!  If we ask Roxy for a kiss, she licks us - she learnt how to wind us round her little paws very quickly!  She also does the licking when you come out of the shower thing, although this isn't such a problem with a toy poodle.  Our first poodle did this two (also a bitch), but our little dog in between didn't (although gladly smothered you in licks at all other times), so I wonder if this is a bitch thing?

lol my lab does get carried away with his licking sometimes and even got his tooth stuck up my nose once it didn't half hurt!  I think there is a thread somewhere about injuries from your dogs and most of them are about licking!

my lab kind of pins me down and licks me in the morning as if he is so pleased that I am awake for another fun/action packed day of stealing things and causing general mayhem lol!

I find that when Nanuk gets excited (she does this a lot!), the best way to calm her down is for her to lick somebody's hand!  Obviously, it's ok with us but embarrassing if we have visitors.......'Oh yes, don't worry about her, just give her your hand and she'll be fine!!'

I heard from someone that dogs only lick people in the early years because when they are young the mothers feed them food out of their mouths?? (sounds like a bird to me!) I read a question page and somebody wrote
''Do dogs lick us because they want to see how we taste so they can eat us?'' :D

In the wild a dog eats its food and regurgitates it. The reason a dog is licking your face is it wants you to 'feed' it. My other half was almost sick when i told the reason Lacey was licking her face the other night but it is true. If any of you have got babies and wondered why your dog licks up babies sick and milk well now you know why!

I have no problem with Millie licking me (if only she wasn't obsessed with trying to lick my tongue and up my nostril) but her problem is she wants to lick other dog's tongues.  My sister's Westie is trying to be very tolerant of this, but his patience is wearing very thin, as it seems her mission in life is to get her tongue inside his mouth and can persevere for several hours, poor thing!

So Glazby wants feeding - well there's a surprise!!!!  :-)  Glazby ALWAYS wants feeding!!!  :D :D