How Safe Are Dog Kisses?Although almost every dog owner allows their pet to lick his face, because people read this behavior as kisses, experts warn of health risks.
It has long been believed that when we kiss a dear people at midnight, or in the first minutes of the new year, we bring happiness into our lives for the next 12 months and drive away evil spirits. Kisses make us happy, not only when we celebrate the departure of the old, and the entry of the new year.
As dogs have become equal members of our families and our faithful companions, so, we have transferred the custom of kissing to the human-dog relationship, so, you will often see a dog licking, its owner’s face, and he laughs because he considers it is an expression of love. But is everything so, “pink”?
Risks
There be numerous scientific evidence that a dog can transmit various bacteria to humans through its kisses, most often — Escherichia coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter, which cause many stomach problems and impair our health. There are a large number of other microorganisms in the mouths of our pets.
So just imagine what they pick up from the walk while sniffing background of other dogs, their faces, garbage, leftover food… Although they are disgusting to us, all these things are tempting to dogs, because they collect information about other dogs and their environment. Also, there is almost no dog that will not smell the body of a dead squirrel or bird if it comes across it.
The immune system
Of course, a person is not such a “delicate flower” that he will immediately catch a bacterium, and that depends a lot on the state of our immune system, but doctors still note that we should avoid dogs licking our faces, and the faces of our children. Chronic patients, for example, have a compromised immune system and are more susceptible to infections, and the dog should not be allowed to lick open wounds.
Of course, if you regularly maintain your dog’s oral hygiene and overall hygiene, if you regularly vaccinate it, protect it from external and clean it from internal parasites, the risk of your dog transmitting a disease is reduced to a minimum, but the recommendation is clear — you can love your dog. To show him tenderness and without the interference of the tongue.
Do dogs love kisses?
This is also one of the important issues because we often don’t even think about it. Kisses are inherent in humans, and in the canine world they do not exist. Experts say that dogs have only learned to tolerate us and allow them to love, hug and annoy them, but that many do not really like it.
Body language
In order not to touch in the dark what the dog wants to tell us, the safest way is to observe his body language.
If his tail is lowered, if he is relaxed, and he approaches us with the intention of giving us a kiss, then we can be sure that he wants to show affection. Also, there is another very clear expression of affection that many do not know about, and that is when the dog stretches and lies down in front of us. It is a supreme expression of love, and you will notice that dogs do it even though they are not tired and sleepy. Stretching is an expression of their love for us.
Personal space
Many dogs will lick you as a sign that you should move, because you are too closing to them and you are violating their personal space. People often put too much face in the dog’s face, and it is not always pleasant for them.
When a dog licks our face, most of us will remove our heads, so many dogs connect these two actions, which is, by licking, they “force” people away from their face.
