Rough Tongues

[wellbeather]

My boy is very into kissing and licking and it's fun up to a point - problem is his tongue is very! rough! basically sandpaper texture. After a few seconds it is like getting a rugburn on whatever he is focused on and stops being enjoyable. I remember the dogs my family had when I was growing up and they both had silky soft tongues that were always a joy to get licked by.

What sort of variables go into determining how rough a dog's tongue is? My guy has a very rough, wiry coat, so I wonder if that correlates at all. I have tried brushing his tongue when we are doing teeth brushing to see if it softens things up, but no luck there. Has anyone noticed diet or anything else having some effect on the softness of their dog's tongues?

 

[Bloit]

I'm just guessing here, but I would assume this is completely genetic.

Rough tongues are a carnivorous trait, as far as I'm aware, so no getting around it. I would assume that the breeds that are closer to wolves can be on the rougher side, compared tot he more, eh, domesticated breeds.

 

[Murphy97]

No advice to give, but I do think it’s genetic and breed dependent. As someone who loves to make out with different dogs, breed matters a ton. My chocolate lab had the softest tongue and perfect amount of wetness, where a German shepherd I kissed for example had a rougher tongue and not as much saliva as my lab.

 

[wellbeather]

Yes good point, since one of the functions of rough tongues is to scrape the meat off bones in the wild. So maybe it is just inversely related to domestication? So dogs with more neotenous/hypersocial/other domestication traits, or ones from show lines vs working lines, might be the ones who could have softer more slippery tongues.