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The snout, or muzzle, is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw.

term "muzzle
Muzzle

A muzzle can be:* The snout of an animal* Muzzle , a device that covers an animal's muzzle* Muzzle , the mouth of a firearm* Muzzle , a song on The Smashing Pumpkins' album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness released in 1995...
", used as a noun
Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
, can be ambiguous. It can refer both to the protruding part of the face itself, and also to a type of apparatus placed over the protruding part to prevent the animal from biting or eating, often used before and after horse races or to control dog
Dog

The dog is a domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties....
s.






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The snout, or muzzle, is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw.

Terminology

The term "muzzle
Muzzle

A muzzle can be:* The snout of an animal* Muzzle , a device that covers an animal's muzzle* Muzzle , the mouth of a firearm* Muzzle , a song on The Smashing Pumpkins' album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness released in 1995...
", used as a noun
Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
, can be ambiguous. It can refer both to the protruding part of the face itself, and also to a type of apparatus placed over the protruding part to prevent the animal from biting or eating, often used before and after horse races or to control dog
Dog

The dog is a domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties....
s. See animal muzzle for the latter meaning.

The wet, naked surface around the nostrils of the nose is known as the rhinarium
Rhinarium

The rhinarium is the wet, naked surface around the nostrils of the nose in most mammals. Colloquially it might be called a "wet snout".Mammals with rhinariums tend to have a stronger sense of olfaction, and the loss of the rhinarium in the haplorrhine primates is related to their decreased reliance on olfaction, being associated with o...
 (colloquially this is the "cold wet nose" of some animals). The rhinarium is often associated with a stronger sense of olfaction
Olfaction

Olfaction refers to the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates....
.

Anatomical description

The muzzle begins at the stop
Stop

The word stop has several possible meanings in the English language, but most commonly means to cease moving.Additionally, stop, STOP, or stops may refer to:...
, just below the eyes, and contains the dog's nose and mouth. In the domestic dog, most of the upper muzzle contains organs for detecting scents. The loose flaps of skin on the sides of the upper muzzle that hang to different lengths over the mouth
Mouth

The mouth, buccal cavity, or oral cavity is the first portion of the alimentary canal that receives food and begins digestion by mechanically breaking up the solid food particles into smaller pieces and mixing them with saliva....
 are called flews. The snout is considered a weak point on most animals, because of its structure an animal can be easily stunned or even knocked out by applying sufficient force.

It is innervated by one of the twelve pairs of cranial nerves. These nerves start in the brain and emerge through the skull to their target organs. Other destinations of these nerves are eyeballs, teeth and tongue.

The muzzle shape of a domestic dog ranges in shape depending upon the breed
Dog breed

Dog breeds are groups of closely related and visibly similar domestic dogs, which are all of the subspecies Canis lupus familiaris, having characteristic traits that are selected and maintained by humans, bred from a known foundation stock....
, from extremely long and thin (dolichocephalic), as in the Rough Collie
Rough Collie

The Rough Collie is a dog breed of dog developed originally for herding in Scotland. It is also well known because of the works of author Albert Payson Terhune, and was popularized in later generations by the Lassie novel, movies, and television shows....
, to nearly nonexistent because it is so flat (extreme brachycephalic), as in the Pug
Pug

The Pug is a small dog breed of dog with a wrinkly, short muzzled face . The word "pug" may have come from the Old English pugg or "puge", which were affectionate terms for a playful little devil or monkey....
. Some breeds, such as many sled dogs and Spitz
Spitz

Spitz-type dogs are a Dog type of dog, characterized by long, thick, and often white fur, and pointed ears and animal muzzles. The tail is usually curled over the dog's back....
 types, have muzzles that somewhat resemble the original wolf's in size and shape, and others in the less extreme range have shortened it somewhat (mesocephalic) as in many hounds.

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