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Why do dogs like to lick your ears?

Why do dogs lick your face when you whisper into their ears?

  • Why do dogs lick your face when you whisper (usually gibberish) into their ears?

  • Answer:

    To induce you to regurgitate food for them. It works on their mothers.

matkline at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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Because doing that brings your face within doggie tongue reach easily?

gomichild

Actually, it really has nothing to do with the whispering. Face-licking is a submissive behavior; watch two dogs get to know each other, and once they've established dominance you'll quickly see the submissive dog licking the dominant one's face.

jacobian

It's not a one-to-one correlation. I'd imagine you'd get different results depending on the dog you tried that with. I've never met a dog that tolerated blowing in their ear, however. This is as non-smartass as I can get.

Mr. Gunn

I always thought it was to get your face away from theirs. It only takes a few licks before I rear back in sloppy horror.

Astro Zombie

I always thought it was to get your face away from theirs. It only takes a few licks before I rear back in sloppy horror. I lean towards this, slightly. We have a 9mo son who is naturally fascinated with the dogs, but unable to be gentle with them. We don't intervene as long as they're getting along, and the dogs seem to know how to handle things OK (it's all supervised). Anyway, if my son gets in the face of either dog and they're uncomfortable, the licking starts in earnest. This usually either slows him down dramatically or drives him away. I wonder though if they see him as a dominant animal in the house, that would be funny. My alternative answer as to why dogs lick you when you whisper in their ear, is because you're close enough for them to nab you.

RustyBrooks

(I don't know if there's one right answer to this, but let me point out that orthogonality's and jacobian's are at least compatible. If face-licking is typical puppy behavior, then it makes sense that adult dogs would use it to show submission and dependency.)

nebulawindphone

Because they can. Wait, no, that's the answer to a different question.

BaxterG4

I think http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/47775#726640 has it right. Though I'll up the metaphorical ante by suggesting that the whispering might be misinterpreted by the dog as a guttural noise similar to a growl. This might explain why just being within licking distance doesn't always cause you to get licked, but whispering does. The dog is trying to display is submissiveness.

quin

growabrain

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