ohmidog!

People who let their dogs lick their faces are no more likely than other dog owners to pick up strains of E. coli bacteria from their dogs. Nor are those who let their dogs sleep with them, a Kansas State University veterinarian reports.

None of which is to say you can’t catch diseases from your dog, or vice versa — as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention points out on its website.

In the Kansas State study, Kate Stenske, a clinical assistant professor at the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine, found that 10 percent of human-dog pairs had the same E. coli strains and that these strains were more resistant to common antibiotics than expected. However, owners had more multiple drug-resistant strains than their dogs.

“This makes us think that dogs are not likely to spread multiple drug-resistant E. coli to their owners, but perhaps owners may spread them to their dogs,” Stenske said in a university news release. The study found no evidence that owners who sleep with their dog or allow face licking were more likely to have shared strains of E. coli.

The study focused on E. coli, which is common in the gastrointestinal tracts of both humans and dogs.

“What we learn from this is that antibiotics really do affect the bacteria within our gastrointestinal tract, and we should only take them when we really need to — and always finish the entire prescription as directed.”

The study did find an association between antibiotic-resistant E. coli and owners who didn’t wash their hands after petting their dogs or before cooking meals, according to the Washington Post.

“We should use common sense and practice good general hygiene,” Stenske advised.