Why Do Dogs Lick Their Lips When They See Food. When wolves and sometimes dogs in the wild return to their pups after a meal they regurgitate meat from the hunt. Dogs react to smells sounds of cooking and thoughts about being fed. They might even see you giving them a scolding for chewing on your favorite sock as a threat. The dogs may offer an appeasement lick to show that they arent threatening or may even do a lip lick or tongue flick as a stress signal and it happens to touch the persons face the ASPCA.
Your dog is no different. The dogs may offer an appeasement lick to show that they arent threatening or may even do a lip lick or tongue flick as a stress signal and it happens to touch the persons face the ASPCA. Another normal cause for lip licking is anticipation of food. Dogs may lick their lips when they feel dry a bug hits their lip or face or something is stuck near their lip such as a piece of food or a blade of grass. The dog will smack his lips. Other causes may only be treatable when they are picked up early.
In fact the action of puppies licking their mothers lips stimulates an automatic reflex in the mother to regurgitate her meal.
In a bid to request care and food puppies also reciprocate the gesture. So they lick their lips when they see food and when they are hungry they do that because thats their way of communicating with owner. They might even see you giving them a scolding for chewing on your favorite sock as a threat. The licking of the lips then becomes an attempt by the dog to calm you down and consider if perhaps you should have put the sock away to begin with. Optimize Your dogs Health. It is believed by some that this licking behavior has been passed down in the DNA causing dogs to instinctively do it sometimes.