Why Does Your Dog Lick Your Tears?
If your dog licks your tears when you cry, they do it either because they can tell you are sad and are comforting you or because they like the taste of your tears.
As discussed in this post, dogs can tell when their owners are upset and will often try to help them feel better by showing affection.
Also, human tears are salty, and just like humans do, dogs like saltiness.
You Accidentally Encouraged Your Dog to Lick You When You Cry
While this might sound surprising, it is easy to accidentally train your dog into a behavior pattern.
For example, let’s say your dog randomly licked you when you were crying one day, and without thinking, you laughed and stroked them.
The dog felt good because you reacted warmly and gave them some attention.
They repeated the behavior, and you gave them a nice cuddle this time.
They have learned that if they lick you when you cry, you will be nice to them.
This might be more applicable to dogs that aren’t used to seeing people cry. Some dogs may actually feel nervous when someone in their pack suddenly starts crying. As we mentioned before, dogs are pretty good at reading human emotions. They might not know how to react when someone starts crying. Licking is a self-soothing behavior for dogs. It’s not so much about lapping up the tears. The dog might just lick your face to feel a bit more relaxed about the situation.
Does your dog lick your face whenever you cry? It’s a cute gesture that may make you wonder if there are other reasons for a dog doing this aside from showing care and affection. Here are some common reasons that may explain why some dogs do this.
Human tears can actually be a bit salty. Some dogs may lick your face whenever you cry because they like the taste of tears. One way you might be able to tell this is by observing their body language. The dog might be acting all excited such as jumping around and becoming playful.
In most cases, there is no need to find a deeper meaning than what is obvious. The dog is licking your face whenever you cry because he wants to comfort you. The dog feels your emotion when you cry. The crying might even be making your dog feel stressful because he isn’t sure what is happening. Licking is a self-soothing behavior for dogs. The dog might feel licking is the most appropriate way to bond and care for others in this kind of situation.