Dog breaks Guinness world record for longest tongue

A dog with a five-inch tongue has broken the world record for the longest licker on a living canine.

Zoey, a Labrador/German shepherd cross from Louisiana, blew away the competition to take the Guinness record.

She lapped the previous record holder, an English setter called Bisbee in Arizona with a relatively tiny tongue of 3.74in (9.5cm).

Zoey had a massive tongue, which would bulge out of her mouth, ever since she was a puppy, but owners Sadie and Drew Williams assumed she would eventually grow into it.

But as the lovable pooch got older, her tongue did not get any smaller.

“We got Zoey when she was only six weeks old, and in the first-ever picture we have of her, she has her tongue sticking out,” Sadie told Guinness World Records.

“It would be slobbering all over the place,” Drew, who lives in a New Orleans suburb, added.

The couple adopted Zoey three years ago after spotting an online post from a person looking to get rid of unintentional litter of puppies.

It was only when the Williams took Sadie to a vet last year that they discovered that their pet had a potential record-breaker lodged in her mouth and decided to try to claim the record.

The couple revealed that Zoey’s mammoth tongue frequently draws comments on their walks from passing strangers, such as “Man, she’s got a long tongue”.

But the passers-by risk an unwanted drool-bath courtesy of her famous tongue if they stop to pet Zoey.

“We’ll warn them ahead of time, ‘Hey, she’s friendly but she might slobber on you’, and every now and then she will, and they’ll have a big slobber mark on their black pants,” Drew said.

Zoey’s favourite hobbies include squirrel-chasing, playing fetch, riding in the car and swimming. She celebrated her record with doggie treats.

A St Bernard named Mochi from South Dakota, blessed with a 7.31in tongue,  held the record for the longest tongue on a living dog until its death in 2021.