Researchers at Virginia Tech University have been studying how dogs drink. They say dogs know exactly what they’re doing. The animals are actually making precise movements at a high speed. This helps them get the fluid they need when they’re thirsty. It turns out that neither dogs nor cats have a full set of cheeks. This means they cannot create suction(吸力) to drink, like humans or elephants and horses.

Dogs drink the water with their tongues curled backward. As they drink, they move their tongues very quickly to build up momentum(冲力). That forces the water into a column and up into their mouths. The Virginia Tech researchers filmed 19 dogs of different sizes and types as they drank water. They created different laboratory models to measure tongue movements and the amounts of water taken in. Using the data from these experiments, the researchers were able to make a model that shows how a dog drinks water.

The researchers said that since the mouths of dogs and cats are structured nearly the same way, they thought they would drink water the same way, too. But here is a surprise. The studies showed each family of animals has its own special drinking method. “We know cats and dogs are quite different in terms of behavior and character,” said Sunghwan Jung, a study author from Virginia Tech. “However, we found out that dogs drink quite differently from cats,” he said.

Dogs must quickly move their tongues down into the water using momentum to bring the water up and into their mouths. Cats don’t bend their tongues to drink like dogs. Cats use less momentum and a more gentle action. They just skim, or barely touch the surface of the water to drink it. “Cats tend to be viewed as neater, while dogs are messier, but dogs really have to accelerate(加速) their tongues to make good use of the way the fluid column works,” said researcher Sean Gart, a Virginia Tech graduate student.