The dog’s nose is an amazing tool the canine will use for a lot of different things. It provides daily news for the dog, getting all kinds of information about the surrounding environment and then interpreting them for the animal. It will also be used as a communication way, pushing against humans and other pets when the pet needs socialization. On top of all this, it is also an internal thermostat that helps the mammal keep its body temperature in check day in and day out.
Being one of the main ways in which a dog will control its temperature, the dog’s nose will be dry, wet, cold, or, of course, warm, depending on weather conditions, environmental conditions, and activity levels of the dog. In fact, it is completely normal for the temperature of the nose of a dog to fluctuate considerably throughout a single day. So let’s go over the reasons that would make a dog’s nose warm.
I think it is important to go over how a dog’s nose works before we talk about the reasons behind it getting warm.
You might also like my articles on whether a dog’s ears are supposed to be warm, why are puppies breathing fast, and why dogs lick their lips.
Dogs will usually wick their nose a lot to keep it moisturized, which makes it wet most of the time. If you’re asking yourself why would your dog do that, you should know that a wet nose will have an enhanced sense of smell and will help the animal get a better idea of what happens around it. A wet nose is so powerful that it can even catch someone being anxious or fearful. This is because this organ is really complex and has over 100 million scent receptors. As a result of always being moisturized, the nose of a dog is most of the time cold.
Although pretty unusual, a dry and warm nose won’t necessarily mean a health issue. There are a few different reasons why your dog’s nose might be warmer than usual:
There are a few breeds of dogs for which a drier nose is totally normal. Some dogs will simply lick their noses less than others. At the same time, some breeds are more prone to health issues that would make their nose lose its natural moisture.
A great example is dogs with very short snouts, which have difficulty properly licking their nose, making them have very unusually dry ones as opposed to other breeds. Among them are Bulldogs and Pugs. Another example is dogs which are very susceptible to a condition that causes their tear ducts to get blocked. Some popular breeds prone to this are Cocker Spaniels and Lhasa Apsos. A blocked tear duct will prevent a dog’s tears from draining naturally into the nasal passage, making it very hard for the nose to moisturize naturally.
As you can probably gather from this article, relying on the dog’s nose temperature to find out when the pet has medical issues isn’t really reliable. What you should remember is that although most people will say that a warm nose is a sign of a dog being sick, this isn’t necessarily true. If on the other hand the warm nose is accompanied by any of the symptoms below, then you should get in touch with your vet: