Should You Let Your Dog Lick Your Face? 9 Animal Hygiene Questions, Answered

You might be surprised to learn that Dr. Daniel Griffin, chief of infectious diseases at Island Infectious Disease Medical in Long Island, N.Y., lets his two dogs lick him.He’s not delusional. “We know how dogs greet each other,” he says. “We know where that tongue has been.” But he lets his expertise take over afterward. Griffin diligently washes his hands after his dogs lick them, especially before picking up a slice of pizza.That’s more or less the expert consensus: love the pet, wash your hands. Living closely with pets brings you closer to germs, but for most people, ordinary contact is low-risk. There are exceptions, however. Here, experts answer the face-licking question and eight others about hygiene and animals you might encounter.Should you let your dog lick your face?First, forget the thing you may have heard your whole life. “I used to hear, ‘Oh, dogs’ mouths are like 10 times cleaner than people’s mouths,’” says Kelley Steury, a veterinarian and clinical associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Public Health. “I don’t think that’s based in science.”A dog’s mouth, like a person’s, is full of bacteria. One species commonly found in dogs, Capnocytop...