Hello, I’m Dr. Karyn! Learn my introduction to be taught extra about me and my 5 humorous canine, Poppy, Bailey, Kodah, Ned, and Fred.
I don’t suppose there’s any doubt that, regardless of having many shared meals pursuits, canine and people don’t all the time see eye to eye about what ought to go in a single’s mouth. There are canine that take pleasure in partaking in poop (or in Fred’s case, choosing bits of carrot out of Bailey’s 🤮), cleansing different canine’ ears (I’m you, Ned), and let’s not even focus on the hours spent cleansing their nether areas! One space that lots of my canine are significantly keen on licking is our ft; Ned and Kodah specifically. Why?
With a way of odor at the least 10,000 instances extra highly effective than our personal, you’d suppose that canine could be repelled reasonably than drawn to issues we discover significantly smelly, however maybe their super-sense permits them to select up on extra interesting particles that our noses miss. If that implies that I proceed to search out smelly ft or ‘eau de poo’ repulsive, then I’m comfortable to undergo life with my comparatively handicapped olfaction.
Every to Their Personal
I don’t dedicate a number of time to investigating the olfactory high quality of our ft, however I do know that neither Husband or I’ve significantly smelly tootsies, at the least from what our meager sense of odor can detect. Even so, as quickly as we slip our footwear off and deploy the footstools of our recliner chairs, Ned or Kodah hone in on our little piggies with the keenness of the proverbial ‘chubby child on cake.’
Whereas I don’t significantly need to encourage this exercise, I’m additionally reluctant to spoil their enjoyable, so I often permit about 30 seconds of toe licks earlier than shooing them away (no pun supposed). Husband, however, lets the foot appreciation session persist some time longer. No, he doesn’t have a foot fetish (I don’t suppose), neither is he attempting to foster any kind of unnatural relationship between himself and the canine (I’m fairly certain), however I really suppose he simply zones out.
I’m not going to lie, being that I’m not ticklish, the feeling of Ned’s tiny tongue isn’t precisely an disagreeable one; kind of what you would possibly anticipate from the fragile lick of a kitten till you discover out that these tiny tongues really really feel just like the spiky facet of a velcro strip. By comparability, Kodah’s beneficiant slurps aren’t fairly so candy!
What’s the Attraction?
So the large query is why are our canine so taken with our toes? What’s behind the attraction to our arches? Their hankering for our heels? Would their adoration intensify if we began carrying sweaty artificial footwear all day, or is our relative lack of foot odor the premise of their attraction?
It’s usually hypothesized that many animals take pleasure in licking at human pores and skin for its considerably salty taste, however would our ft be the saltiest of our uncovered physique elements? Maybe, however I’m not prepared to search out out.
Possibly it’s a bond-strengthening grooming ritual? However you don’t usually see canine devoting a lot of their downtime to cleansing every others’ paws.
Regardless of the case, I’m not significantly involved about this little behavior. Maybe I needs to be extra involved – or offended – in the event that they all of a sudden cease!
Do your canine have any bizarre, great, or lovely quirks? Tell us within the feedback under.
This text is part of Dr. Karyn’s sequence along with her 5 canine.
