How Dogs Drink Water the Science Behind Messy Lapping

Have you ever seen how dogs drink water and wondered why it looks so messy yet works so well? Dogs do not scoop the water in their mouth and drink in politeness like human beings. They instead do a fast, elegant, physics-based movement which scientists only understood in full understanding in recent years.

At first sight, it is an example of a brilliant piece of biomechanics and fluid physics, which at first sight intermingles, but then it becomes clear that it is a masterpiece. We will enter the secret science of the tongue of a dog, which is what it is lapping water, and the reason why the secret of it is so much more interesting than it might seem to us.

Why Dogs Can’t Sip Water: How Dogs Drink Water Differently

The dogs cannot create such a tight protection of the lips as human beings do. Their cheeks are pliant, and their mouths are shaped, rather to pant and bite than to take sips. This anatomical constraint necessitated evolution to seek an alternative to this.

That solution? Making a perfect motion with gravity, speed, and surface tension.
Dogs do not pull the water in the mouth as humans do, but they pull it upwards, almost defying gravity.

How Dogs Drink Water Using Their Tongue Like a Ladle

The tongue of a dog does not curve upwards like a spoon, as it is believed. The studies of high-speed cameras prove something unexpected:

When a dog drinks, it curls the tip of its tongue inward like a ladle and rapidly strikes the water’s surface, pulling up a column of liquid. As the tongue retracts, gravity immediately begins to pull the water back down, but the dog closes its jaws at precisely the right moment to capture it.

This entire process happens within fractions of a second and is repeated several times per second, showing how perfectly timed coordination between tongue movement, jaw closure, gravity, and time allows the dog to drink efficiently;  even a delay of a few milliseconds would cause the water to fall back into the bowl.

Physics Behind How Dogs Drink Water

Several physical laws explain how dogs drink water while lapping:

• Inertia:  Water opposes motion changes, and as a consequence, it temporarily rises. Gravity pulls the column of water downwards.
• Surface tension: Helps hold the water column together.
• Velocity:  A greater speed of movement of the tongue raises more water.

The quicker and more accurate the movement of the tongue, the more water the dog drinks with each lap. The reason Bigger Dogs Drink Differently: Not all dogs lap the same way.

Research shows

• Big dogs possess longer tongues, and they are slower in movement.
• Small dogs run at a higher speed to counter the small tongue size.
• Every dog automatically regulates the pace and depth to be the most efficient.

That is why both a Great Dane and a Chihuahua do not die, even though their drinking habits are as different as night and day.

Why Cats Drink More “Neatly”

• Cats employ such a mechanism with one critical difference: control.
• Cats are scarcely in contact with the water.
• They produce a thinner and more stable water column.
• The speed of their lap exactly matches the gravity.

However, dogs are more concerned with speed as opposed to accuracy- this is why there are splashes.

Why Water Bowls End Up Wet

That old puddle around the bowl of your dog? It is not bad manners to do so; it is physics.
Water splashes because:

• The tongue strikes the surface violently.
• Water is spilt when closing the jaw.
• The water is lost high speed repetition.

It is a call to remember that not all science is done in the laboratory or in books, but also in your dog’s water bowl.

Final Thought

Dogs do not drink gracefully; they drink gloriously. Their tongue, which makes contact with water, is a masterpiece of physics, timing and evolution- it is done with ease a few times a second.

This simple daily activity also makes us better appreciate the fact that intelligent and finely tuned animals do exist.

We are enthusiasts of the science, tales, and mere wonders of pet life at Petsfolio. Whether it is the intriguing facts about the behavior of cats and dogs or essential information about the care of pets, Petsfolio helps pet owners get a little closer to their furry friends, story after story.