Apparently, the tongue lick means the dog is anxious, but it is cute.

TheOneWithTheHair@lemmy.world to aww@lemmy.world – 189 points –
14

It doesn't necessarily mean that. It can mean that.

Sometimes they have tasty boogy

This is why sometimes dog lick my nose.

I tell her to keep her licker in her licker cabinet but she no listen ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I thought it increased the uptake of particulates to the chemoreceptors in their noses, but I'm no dog therapist.

Well, attempting to enhance one’s own senses is generally a sign of anxiety in the animal kingdom. Like wide open eyes for example.

If we're studying the psychology of behavior in any life form, we can't allow ourselves to fall into boxy or linear thinking. It's a trap we're prone to.

Pupils dilate differently in response to light, drugs, love, food, being Nala in the Lion King, getting punched in the eye, concussions, and genetic manipulation.

You have to look at other body language components along with the lick. This is a lick is missing some stress signals that may mean it's less anxiety driven or only partly anxious. A video would be more informative.

There is no whale eye here (whites of the eyes), eyebrows are 'somewhat' relaxed (not totally sleepy relaxed, but not ridgidly flexed either), ears are not flattened/down in an anxious position (see the linked article below for stressed vs relaxed face and note Clara's whale eye, folded ears, and eyebrows in the stressed image).

Rigid eyebrows in a stressed expression: a great read on stressed vs relaxed face side by side pick of the same dog: https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/2013/02/14/dog-facial-expressions-stress/

Here's a good example of stress vs relaxed lip licks: https://youtu.be/kMirei9-n18