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Dogs and licking feet?
Jack the beagle loves foot-licking. I don't really like it myself, so I end up wearing socks a lot, but I know a lot of people that have foot-lciking dogs. This started me thinking about why dogs lick feet.
My first thought was that dogs like the salt that accumulates on the surface of human skin, like mosquitoes. Still, dogs like licking feet more than, say, arms in my experience. I figured, then, it might be the smell or the pheromones, but they don't just stop at feet, they like to lick legs, too. Finally, I came up with the idea that it's a behavior of affection/submission. Dogs lick to clean, and lick other members of the pack similarly to keep them clean. While it's functional (the way most altruistic behaviors start, from an evolutionary perspective), more consciously it seems to be communicating appreciation.
What are your thoughts?
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