Jeep Makes a Splash

Some of you thought it was funny watching Jeep tip her water bowl over when she visited classrooms and libraries. I know Jeep thought it was fun, too.   I thought she wanted to use her bowl as a swimming pool.  Pyrenees love to splash water.  Remember Jeep in her pool?

Unfortunately, Jeep is still a very messy drinker compared to Dot Com.  I think Jeep enjoys getting water all over the place.  We often have to wipe up the extra water with a towel.  One of her favorite things to do is to finish a long gulp of water, stand up straight on all fours and then let the water run slowly out her cheeks right onto the floor.  Luckily, Jeep generally doesn’t drool or slobber.  For her, it is just a weird water drinking thing.

Watching Jeep drink is interesting.  She noisily plunges her long tongue into the water bowl repeatedly.   It never looks like a whole lot of water is actually staying on her tongue. This made me wonder how she gets any water into her mouth at all.

I learned that dogs don’t have a full set of cheeks like humans, elephants or horses.  When drinking, dogs shape their tongues into scoops.  Their tongues actually curl backwards. This creates a column of water that the dog pulls into its mouth.  Researchers at Virginia Tech University have studied how dogs drink.  While it looks messy to me, Jeep is actually making very precise quick movements with her tongue.  The faster she moves her tongue, the more water she is able to pick up from the water column.

I am so glad to know that our friend Jeep is not being a bad puppy by splashing that water all over (although she could take a few drinking lessons from Dot!)

Slow Motion Video of Dog Drinking