My son asked "how does the water stay on dogs tounges when they drink?" I answered what I thought an I right?

Question

my answer "I think they have little things on their tounges that help hold the water on".

Answer 1

This is interesting as it is something I recently learned from a person who absolutely 100% knows this and taught me this answer.

Dogs and cats and most animals other than humans, drink water differently than you would imagine and lap in the opposite direction than one would think. You would think their tongue moves forward and curl upward to create a spoon effect to pull the water into their mouth. It does not, however... their tongues lap downward and pull the water back into their mouth from the underside of the tongue. Kind of upside from what one would think. The water is not sticking onto their tongues but.... they are pushing the tongue out and then downward and inward motion using the underside of the tongue... as they pull tongue backwards, water scoops into their mouths from under the tongues. Maybe this accounts for the reason it seems dog usually leave drips and little puddles behind them on the floor when they drink.

I actually have layed down at my cats level to watch this in action and to my amazement, it is true. She laps the water in reverse from the way a human would.

A way to show this to your son is to - point out your
index / pointer finger and slowly curl it down and back. The water collects inside the curl. This sort of shows the direction of movement for how most animals/ mammals use their tongues to drink.
Smart boy - great question. Tell him to keep it up!

Answer 2

They can curl the tip of their tounge like a cup to hold the water.

Answer 3

Ya. Your pretty much right. They have little porelike thing on their tounge that help them...their tounge scoops up a lot of water too. and also their tounge scoops it up so fast, so continuously that they get a lot of water.

Answer 4

Hey,I asked a question about airport security this morning & received 5, (good) replies. Someone asked what was the best fragrance to go with a baby blue tank top & got 44 responses. Does that say something about the mentality of Yahoo Answers ,answerers?

Answer 5

TASTE: In addition to directing the dog to eat rotten garbage and to be repulsed at the taste of woodcock, the canine tongue is capable of discerning sensations of salt, sweet and sour. The sensation of sour is dispersed somewhat evenly over the top of the tongue, salt along the lateral edges and rear of the tongue and sweet along the edges and front of the tongue. Dogs have a finely tuned ability to taste water, and that trick is performed only by the tip of the tongue.

PAPILLAE: These odd projections from the surface of the tongue are of five different types. The slightly shredded look to the front and side of the dog's tongue (especially noticeable in newborn pups) are called marginal papillae and those funny bumpy things on the back of the tongue are vallate. . . Well, I'll tell you what. . . the next time you see your buddy curiously peering into his dog's mouth and he suddenly exclaims, "Hey, what the heck are these weird doofangles on Cinder's tongue?", just tell him they're called papillae and there are five kinds of em and casually walk away.

WHAT MAKES THE TONGUE WET? Every dog has four pairs of salivary glands with tiny drainage tubes transporting the saliva into the mouth. One salivary gland is located just beneath and lateral to the eye underneath the "cheekbone". One gland is situated at the base of the ear-canal cartilage, one just behind the angle of the jaw and the smallest in front of the angle of the jaw. These glands produce the preponderance of moisture in the mouth, secreting a thick (mucoid) saliva and a watery-thin (serous) saliva. Plus, the surface of the tongue itself harbors numerous tiny salivary glands secreting both serous and mucoid fluid. So the dog's tongue doesn't really sweat, but the net effect of the salivary glands of the tongue amounts to the same thing. . . cooling by evaporation.

Answer 6

The dog's tongue will actually go into the water, and then create a little bowl with it (like we do when we lick ice cream or yogurt).

Think of the tongue as a spoon, and you have your answer.

I bet you could find slow motion video of it online too.
That would be cool for a kid too.
:)

Answer 7

The tip of the tongue acts as a scoop then the water is thrown back into the dog's mouth, that's why they make a bit of a mess.

Answer 8

Their tongues fold up and create a little "bowl" in their tongue. Plus, they lap up water fast enough that it stays in their mouth.

Answer 9

no--you're wrong.
they curl the end of their tongues and the water gets flipped up in the curled end of the tongue. videotape your dog (or cat) drinking water; then play it on tv in slow motion for your son

Answer 10

Well, that's as good a guess as any I could come up with (not sure if it's right or not). I just think it's really cute. I learn so much from the questions my kids ask...they are so much more curious than grown ups.