Tasting their surroundings. Compared to humans, your dog will be able to detect a lot more information with their mouth and nose. Dogs occasionally lick the urine of other dogs to better understand the information they smell thanks to their enhanced senses.
Is Licking Other Dogs’ Pee a Problem?
The sight of your dog licking another dog’s feces may be upsetting to you. Relax, there is nothing wrong with your dog. This instinctive behavior is normal and usually harmless. However, by licking other animals’ poop, a dog could become infected with a disease.
A bacterial illness called leptospirosis can infect both humans and dogs. It frequently spreads through rodents’ urine and other wildlife’s urine. Leptospirosis-infected dogs can infect humans, other animals, and dogs by urinating the disease. Leptospirosis results in flu-like symptoms and can cause liver or kidney failure in both people and dogs. Although it is technically possible to contract leptospirosis from another dog, dogs are more likely to do so from contaminated water. Therefore, if your dog is licking the urine of other dogs, it may be cause for concern. If your dog exhibits symptoms of illness or you believe they may have been exposed to leptospirosis, call your veterinarian right away.
Urine does not contain intestinal parasites or gastrointestinal viruses like parvo. However, if a dog is shedding the parasite or virus from the anus, it could get sick from licking the genital region of an infected dog.
Dogs can get Capillaria plica, a rare bladder parasite, but not from another dog’s urine. Instead, the parasite eggs are excreted by the infected dog, where they hatch into larvae and then enter earthworms. To get the parasite, a dog must eat the infected earthworm.
Why Does My Dog Lick Other Dogs’ Pee?
Dogs use their noses to explore the world around them. Dogs have a much more developed olfactory system than humans do. They can actually detect pheromones thanks to a structure in their nasal passages called the vomeronasal organ or Jacobsons organ. They are capable of picking up multiple layers of scent, and they will occasionally lick things, surfaces, and even other dogs to get a better whiff.
Each dog has specific chemicals and pheromones in their urine. It provides details about the dog’s life and can reveal information about its sex, reproductive status, general health, and diet. This explains why dogs mark things with their urine: they do it to mark their territory and communicate with other dogs. Naturally, this explains why your dog is attracted to the dog poop of other dogs.
In order for your dog to fully inhale all of the “aromas” from the other dog, you might notice him licking in addition to smelling the urine. Some dogs will rub their bodies and faces on scents they find appealing, which may include dog urine.
What should I do about my dog drinking his own pee?
Dogs drinking their own urine is more to blame than anything else for human error and mistakes in judgment, which may be difficult for many devoted, well-intentioned pet parents to accept. Some dogs drink their own urine due to sheer boredom.
Pets that spend the entire day indoors while their owners are at work and their children are in school become bored You must acknowledge that dogs’ need to interact and communicate with people is really no different from that of their human counterparts. The truth is that the average dog can only watch so much Dog TV in a given day.
FAQ
Should I let my dog lick other dogs pee?
Relax, there is nothing wrong with your dog. This instinctive behavior is normal and usually harmless. However, by licking other animals’ poop, a dog could become infected with a disease. A bacterial illness called leptospirosis can infect both humans and dogs.
Is it normal for dogs to lick other dogs privates?
It is actually a healthy and common dog social behavior to lick another dog’s privates. It’s just a way for them to get to know one another politely by grooming and smelling one another. They do this whether they are sterilized or not.
What happens if dog licks urine?
Some diseases, such as leptospirosis, which affects dogs and is spread by contaminated urine, can be brought on by urine licking. When dogs’ mucous membranes or injured skin, such as that from a cut or scrape, come into contact with contaminated urine, they may become infected.
Are dogs attracted to other dogs urine?
This is based on a behavior called overmarking. They try their best to mask any scent present with their own in order to project the impression that they are the most dominant animal nearby. This is reminiscent of a time when dogs mostly lived in the wild.