How Much Do You Know About Your Dog’s Tongue?

Dogs are wonderful creatures. While they’re amazing pets, they’re also rather interesting in their own respective ways. It’s our responsibility as pet parents to take time to actually learn about the important things concerning our dogs – like their tongues. The tongue is an important part of your dog’s mouth. Although it may not necessarily seem like it, the tongue has many different uses. It can tell your dog’s health condition, it can help them to groom themselves, it can cool them down through panting, and it can even dictate the sound of his bark.Every bark is distinctive to the size, length, and thickness of your dog’s tongue. Of course, the vocal cords also influence this but the tongue also plays a major part. That’s how you can tell dogs of the same breed apart by just listening to their barks.

It tells you when he’s overly stressed. If he constantly licks his lips and flips his tongue back and forth through the air, there’s a good chance that he’s either uncertain or stressed.

When you take care of your dog’s teeth, you’re preventing plague buildup, thereby also protecting your dog from further dental problems such as tooth infections and gum disease. Although brushing your dog’s teeth can be a bit of a challenge, it’s all made a little bit easier because of his tongue. Your dog takes care of the insides of his teeth using his tongue. So you’re good to go on that part. Dental hygiene is really important. That’s why missing a dentist’s appointment can be close to deadly.

Dogs have very few sweat glands. This means that they rely on other methods to keep them cool during the harrowing summer heat. One of these methods is panting. When he pants after a good game of fetch on a hot summer day, he’s just trying to cool down. Since he can’t rely on his sweat glands to keep him cool, he has to turn to his tongue to do the job.

Tongues can have different hues. They don’t always have to come in the shade of pink as is what’s normal for humans. Some breeds even have blue tongues! It’s perfectly normal if your dog’s tongue has black spots on it. However, if you notice that your dog’s tongue has changed over time, it might be a good idea to visit the vet. The color, shape and texture of your dog’s tongue matter and if there’s a change, it’s better to strike out the possibility of an underlying medical condition that might be causing the change.