Why Do Dogs Jump Up And Lick People's Faces?
Part
of the canine greeting is to sniff and lick faces. Because people are
so much bigger than they are, dogs try to bridge the gap by jumping up.
Some people really dislike it when dogs, their own or someone else's,
jump on them. But dogs, on the other hand, do it all the time because
they think they are being polite.
The
next time you take your dog to the park, watch how he greets and is
greeted by other dogs. They start by sniffing each other's
mouths, then move around to sniff the back ends. All of this
is considered proper and polite behavior among dogs, and they assume it
is the way they should greet people.
Dogs
do not
have any trouble sniffing our bottoms, they will do it all the time if
given a chance. But the first part of the greeting, the mouth sniff, is
not possible because we are so much taller than they are. Except for
very short people with very tall dogs, the only way this is going to
happen is if dogs get up on their hind legs...