Simply put, a dog licks us when we pet them or cuddle them to return the favor. They're just giving us the same love and attention they’re getting from us. When dogs get attention from us, they get a significant surge of feel-good hormones like oxytocin. In fact, bonding time between owners and their dogs drastically improves your dog's quality of life. Naturally, they improve our lives too. If you want to read more about the benefits of having a dog, you can see our article here.  So when we pet dogs, it feels good to them. In fact, unless a dog has anxiety over being touched or in pain, petting and cuddling make them feel loved. Their instinctive way to return that love is to lick you. They may lick our hands or any part of our body they can reach, but typically, what they really want to lick is our face.