In the, “Did you every wonder about?” category, this article helps those who wonder how dogs get enough to drink with their head down and all the splashing that takes place from those tongues.
Dogs are drinking machines. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences confirms it.
Source: Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2015.
A dog laps by splashing its tongue into the water. As the tongue flies back, water sticks to the front of the tongue and gets pulled up toward the mouth. At just the right moment, the dog expertly snaps its jaws shut. Lap. Gulp. Repeat.
Dogs’ tongues exit the water at speeds of up to 4 mph (or 1.8 meters per second), creating a pressure difference between the tongue and the water’s surface. That causes a column of water to shoot up in front of the tongue.