Eye Licking

Hi

Thoughts pls ,often Rosie sit by Poppy then they have a mutual adoration session which involves a lot of eye contact then licking of faces by both ,but sometimes Poppy seems to lick Rosie's eyes ,she doesn't object to this but I tend to stop it .Why does this happen and could it affect or even damage Rosie in any way ,as i say neither seem bothered by it and it doesn't go on for too long and neither objects or shows any harm ,or is it just that as a human I find it off putting .

Gavin is the eye licker in my house and the girls all line up for his attention

Alright Ste

I should of expected that one.

See You Mate

Everynight our Male Gus spends over an hour licking Cassie's eyes and face (she's the old one) never does it to Holly, he has never shown any ill effects from this.
Desmond Morris an animal behaviourist say's when dogs lick faces it is because they are trying to get the dog they are licking to regurgitate food. Cassie would never part with her food. LOL
Nanette

Regurgitate their food? Yikes!! Madison is the licker in our house. She will spend time going down the line - first Riley, then Oz, then Oliver. Oliver sometimes pushes her away, but the others are fine with it. I had heard it has something to do with sumission, but I never looked into it so don't know if that's true.

Max tries to lick Mindy's eye every time I give her Optimune. I figured he is trying to lick it out (because I starve the poor pup of course). Mindy doesn't seem to mind but I try to prevent it because I figure that she needs it in her eye. He also tends to lick her face after meal time. That might be trying to get her to regurgitate or just trying to lick off every last crumb (he also licks out her bowl when she is done).

I just googled 'dogs licking one another' and it gives various reasons.

Pups do it to get regurgitated food from the moms......yuck. lol

Other dogs do it to show submission or respect.

And, of course, they do it to get every last crumb on anothers (canine or human) chin!

Dogs lick humans as a show of respect or affection.

So, lots of reasons.....mostly sociable interactions.

Merlin is the licker in our house, tends to be when he want to get amourous with Oakley!

Lily likes to lick Leo's eyes.

I am quite sure it is because she likes the taste of the excretions -- the yeasty stuff that gets in their fur around their eyes. She likes to nibble off the hardened gunk that sometimes collects on Lucy's fur on her face as well.

As much as we'd like to see it as such, it isn't a sign of affection when dogs lick each other's faces or ours -- it is a friendly/submissive greeting connected to (as others have noted) the inbuilt reflex of puppies to lick adult faces to get them to regurgitate food for them. Or as with Lily it is definitely a bit of self-satisfying licking up of something she finds tasty!! Nonetheless Leo seems to enjoy the attention and Lily just adores Leo. But Leo is the dog leader in the house too so maybe it is just her acknowledging him.

Some viewpoints:

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/is-your-dog-licking-or-kissing/page1.aspx
http://www.smalldogsparadise.com/dog-behavior/what-does-it-mean-when-my-dog-licks-my-face/

Amber is the eye licker here which makes perfect sense - Holly is Top Dog. Alanna is still too wee to come in for much eye licking attention, but sometimes she gets a lick from Amber (when she stays still long enough).

Misty is the eye licker here....

except it's always us humans eyes, and ears she's trying to lick:yuk:

Chickabee cleaned everyone's eyes and would do ears also :*gh: and now that she has returned to Arizona via Operation Roger I'm noticing that Freckles eyes are a mess :yuk:. Got to work harder at keeping them clean and our awful cold weather causes a lot of tearing for them all. For you with eye lickers I'll trade ya' a butt scooter :badgrin:.

Karlin said:

Lily likes to lick Leo's eyes.

I am quite sure it is because she likes the taste of the excretions -- the yeasty stuff that gets in their fur around their eyes. She likes to nibble off the hardened gunk that sometimes collects on Lucy's fur on her face as well.

Click to expand...

Yes, I totally think this is why Maisy (dog) licks Wally's (cat) eyes. Wally is an exotic shorthair with a flat face. The short nose makes him have watery eyes and if not cleaned a couple times a day the excretions turn dark and we joke that Wally has gone 'goth'. It was a really pain to keep that cat's eyes clean and then just recently I noticed that he looks pretty clean even though I hadn't been cleaning him ...and then I noticed why ...Maisy cleans them up! Kind of makes me sick but there really isn't anything I can do about it. As long as it doesn't adversely affect the animals then all is good.