Dogs Licking Plates

[Goldengirl123]

We were in a pub and there was a large group of people near us. One of the men didn’t finish his meal so he got the plate and gave it to his dog to finish. One of his mates said that was terrible but he couldn’t see why as the plate would be going in the dishwasher. I was disgusted

Another reason dogs shouldn't be in restaurants.

I wouldn’t do it in a restaurant, but at home our dog was often given our plates to lick, and anything else she might fancy - the roasting tin, a fish pie dish, etc.
They all went straight in the dishwasher afterwards.

And believe it or not, nobody sickened, let alone died!

I have to say, given a roasting tin, her tongue was as good as a Brillo Pad. She’d hold it down with one paw and keep at it until barely a molecule remained.
🐶❤️ RIP

Well I caught my labs standing on the open dishwasher door having a good old lick, but it’s not something I would encourage , and I certainly would ne er let them near a plate or table in a cafe or in someone’s house.

It is grim , and not healthy for the dog either. If I saw it in a pub, I would be telling the staff.

Dogs are well known as the pre-wash on the dishwasher. Wouldn't bother me at all ... more worried about folk not washing their hands after using the toilet.

I bet she was an all-round wonderful girl. I'm sorry for your loss.

I think the dishwasher would clean it but it’s a bit ick for me.
Also, my dogs only have food from their bowls or my hand. Most human food is not suitable for dogs.
If I’m eating in a pub and my dogs are with me, they are given a dog treat after we have eaten.

I think if you need to know every dish you eat off is clean, that no one has slobbered on, sneezed over or stuck their todger into your food, then you have to eat at home food which you have prepared yourself.

Pubs are not hygienic places...

When you eat in a pub/restaurant- you take forks and spoons that have been in strangers mouths and put them in your own mouth. Those forks have been in the mouth of multiple people. You use cutlery that has probably touched raw food.

However you trust it’s been properly washed in hot enough temperatures to get all germs and dirt off them.

Why do you think a dog’s tongue is worse that a strangers or raw meat?

If you even have the slightest suspicion a pub is not properly washing their plates and cutlery, you really shouldn’t be eating there.

I used to allow my dogs to do a "dishwasher prewash" like this when we were at home. The plates were then bunged straight into the dishwasher, which washes so hot it near enough sterilises them.

I never did it when we were out though.

It’s not as gross as cats licking their arse then the owner allowing the cat to lick them! Maybe the cat needs to go in the dishwasher?

I imagine dogs who roll around in fox poo and snuffle the ground are ingesting whatever is on the ground and probably licking it too, so what they might have in their mouths is very different from humans.

I hope cafes and restaurants sterilise their equipment if people are allowing their dogs to lick their plates.

@MangaKanga What kind of places are you eating at that you think there is a possibility that someone would stick their knob in your food ?!😂😂

This reminds of when I was about 5 and I let the cat lick some butter off my plate, I told my mum it hadn't needed to be washed because the cat licked it clean. DM asked where it was and I told her I had put it back in the cupboard. Meanwhile DM had washed , dried and put away all the rest of the plates. My DM, to say the least, was NOT amused 🤣🤣

God no! At home, any leftovers we might feed the dog get put in his bowl. Ddog knows he's not allowed to touch human plates and will hopefully stare, but not touch anything on human plates/bowls.

.

I find it pearl-clutchy to be disgusted by it. To some religions perhaps and to some doctrines that are age-old, but dogs aren't a 'disgusting filthy animal' compared to us. No documented cases of anyone becoming ill from dog saliva. And a clean plate is a clean plate (once it has been washed I mean obviously).

Having said that, I wouldn't do this in public as I would be afraid of the backlash from aforementioned peal clutchers and for respect for the cafe/pub/whatever place.

I am not eating there. But there were very confident claims from a former barmaid at a pub we used to drink at. 🙃

There is a huge problem with this: the dog is taught by being fed food on a plate that the food on the plate is for the dog.
Thus ANY food on ANY plate could be seen by the dog to be viable food source.
Next, the dog owner will be on their phone, dog will spy an unoccupied plate of food on adjacent table where person has gone to loo between courses, and meanwhile their serving has arrived....chaos.

No dog of mine will ever be fed from a human's plate. Quite happy to put plate contents in dog bowl.

A lot of people on this thread don't seem to understand what dishwashers do.

we used to, at home, but dishwasher is broken, so we dont any more
but it is so rude to do it in a pub

I think this has been done to death before !

Hospitals and restaurants have commercial dishwashers. These have higher temperatures and work to sterilise what is in them.

Domestic dishwashers generally work at lower temperatures and have a range of settings. They rarely sterilise (although I guess it is probably possible to get one that does this) and many of the temperatures provide a lower level of sanitising - for example my dishwasher has a 40C wash which probably does not kill a lot of stuff.

So the TLDR to "will any germs from my pet survive the dishwasher" is "it depends".

Generally I think it is an unhygenic practice to let your pets lick anything and put it in domestic dishwashers.

Most people who do it seem to rely on fairly qualitative justification for why it is acceptable, such as "the dishwasher gets boiling" or "none of us has ever died" rather than on any hard science in my experience.

Watching David Baddiel Cats show .Josh Widdicombe was saying his own cat drinks from his own 1 pint water glass, and doesnt touch his own! Furthermore Josh was cool with that and even drank the water afterwards! Ugh I always wash the plates in the DW ,and My dog has her own bowl and a couple of old plates as well

Definitely not 'hard science' but my science tutor Aunt once did an experiment for her class where she put dog saliva, cat saliva and human saliva in petri dishes and left them for a week then tested bacterial levels.

Dog saliva-not much growth at all.
Human saliva-significantly more.
Cats-by far the worst!

But of course this is just a random internetter saying this! I haev always remembered it though. By that tiny study dogs are cleaner than us.

Not really though. Most breeds of dog can be trained not to touch food that hasn't been offered to them (and to wait for a command to eat). My collie is often left in a room with my plate of lunch on a coffee table while I answer a phone call. I often find her politely looking at it from a distance, but she wouldn't even approach and sniff without permission.

LABRADORS ARE THE EXCEPTION. NO LABRADOR CAN BE TRUSTED AROUND FOOD.

Guess what breed my other dog is...

I have also seen this in a cafe near me recently. Honestly felt disgusted. Also the amount of people letting their dogs sit on the chairs in pubs/cafes is equally horrible. I don't want to sit on that chair after your dog has been on it thanks. Grim.