At Monmouth: mud and whiskers

How is it possible that a dog armed with so many whiskers can not detect the amount of mud on its face? Or perhaps she can and thats the problem.

I love looking at an animals whiskers. They are so well equipped for life. Having a bunch on sensors scattered around your face seems to be a great idea. Apparently if you snip off your cat r dogs "vibrissae" you would send it into complete disorientation. Clearly I cant imagine anyone who would be cruel enough to try that one, but it made me think about other land mammals including ourselves. With all the male and female grooming these days its would be easy to think that us humans have sent ourselves into a flurry of disorientation. How far removed we are from where we originally came from. And to think Ella was studying Darwin tonight!