Does touching dogs and/or dogs’ saliva nullify wudoo?

Question:
Does touching dogs and/or their saliva nullify wudoo?

Answer:
Praise be to Allaah.

Touching dogs or their saliva does not nullify wudoo’ because if tahaarah is done according to the rules of sharee’ah, nothing can nullify it except things for which there is evidence in sharee’ah. There is no such evidence that touching dogs or their saliva have this effect. It was not mentioned by the scholars among the things that nullify wudoo’.

Ibn Qudaamah mentioned in al-Mughni (1/264) things that nullify wudoo’, and he did not mention touching dogs or their saliva. Then he said: “These are all the things that nullify tahaarah, and it cannot be nullified by anything else according to the view of the majority of scholars…”

But there is no doubt that dogs’ saliva is very dirty and extremely naajis (impure), and it can only be removed by washing *seven times, one of them with earth. There is a difference between this and something which nullifies tahaarah. And Allaah knows best.

Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid

*Please note:
If a dog licks one’s clothes, the area licked would need to be washed three times or under flowing water, like other filth according to the Hanafi school of thought.
It would be recommended to wash it seven times, one of them with water and with soil, to follow the outward purport of the instruction of the Prophet (Sallallahu ‘Alaihi wa Sallam), and to avoid the difference of opinion of the Shafiis and Hanbalis (Allah be well pleased with their scholars, and benefit us from the barakah of all the inheritors of the Prophet’s way). [Buhuti,Kashshaf al-Qina`; Nawawi, Minhaj al-Talibin] [The Hanafi imams understood the Prophet’s command to be for emphasis and recommendation, not obligation.]