Dog Question - Licking???

[The Mayor]

and not the normal things that dog lick...our male Beagle has recently started licking the rugs, floors, walls, his bed...they are all clean and he's not licking up anything spilled...just gets up and starts licking ...it started about a month ago...he's 7 1/2 years old and this is driving me crazy...any other dog owners have this issue?

 

[hiwaygal]

my dog does this for two reasons:

1. boredom

2. upset tummy (kind of the same effect as eating grass)


For the upset tummy, try giving him some canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling). It does wonders for the tummy problems.

For the boredom...well, a walk might do!

 

[luvwinnie]

COuld be nausea or itching...when my Winnie has an itchy butt from her tail being too tight, she licks the air. I'd check with vet to be safe.

 

[donald&daisy]

My parent's cairn terrier and sometimes their lhasa apso will lick the bed incessantly...it can be very annoying, plus it leaves bug nasty wet spots. Their vet said this was due to allergies. My shih tzu will lick his feet and this is also b/c of allergies. You might call you vet and ask. Alot of the time they will just recommend putting your dog on Bendryl or an equivalent. Clearly, I can't be certain that is the problem, but it does sound similar to what our dogs will do sometimes.

It could also be that he isn't getting all the nutrients he needs from his food?

 

[Goofyluver]

COuld be nausea or itching...when my Winnie has an itchy butt from her tail being too tight, she licks the air. I'd check with vet to be safe.

I'm sorry...I apologize for laughing. But, ummmm...how do you do know this?

 

[gypsydoodlebug]

My parent's cairn terrier and sometimes their lhasa apso will lick the bed incessantly...it can be very annoying, plus it leaves bug nasty wet spots. Their vet said this was due to allergies. My shih tzu will lick his feet and this is also b/c of allergies. You might call you vet and ask. Alot of the time they will just recommend putting your dog on Bendryl or an equivalent. Clearly, I can't be certain that is the problem, but it does sound similar to what our dogs will do sometimes.

It could also be that he isn't getting all the nutrients he needs from his food?

My lhasa licks the bed, her paw and the couch. She only started doing this a few years ago. She doesn't seem to have any problems associated with it. Maybe I need to talk to the vet at her check-up this month.

 

[JKanownik]

I don't have a dog, but my cat does this. She is OCD about licking. She can't stand for anything to be dirty. As soon as you pet her, she has to lick the area that you touched. She is such a snob.

 

[The Mayor]

Thanks everyone...he has his yearly check up next week so I'm going to ask the Vet...just wanted to see if others had been thru this with their dogs...he's not bored as he gets plenty of walks and chasing the ball in the yard...nutrition shouldn't be a factor but the OCD is definitely a possibilty as he's always been a little whacky

 

[ilovepcot]

Years ago I had a Toy Poodle that licked the sofa nonstop! Drove the family nuts. Nothing corrected this behavior but DH threatened to get rid of her. I cried so he just put up with it. Vet wasn't able to give us a reason for the behavior and we've always wondered why she did it.

 

[DMickey28]

COuld be nausea or itching...when my Winnie has an itchy butt from her tail being too tight, she licks the air. I'd check with vet to be safe.

I can't help but ask ... how/why would your dog's tail be too tight???

 

[sj&k]

Our shih tzu licks his paws, whatever furniture he may be lying on at the time (bed, couch, chair), and us, if we let him. He will also wait until DH and I get out of bed in the morning and lick our pillows, and when DH gets out of the recliner in the family room he will jump up onto the chair and lick the area where DH's head has been resting-same thing with the couch. We asked the vet if this was a problem (I had read about allergies, etc.) and she said "No, he just loves you." I don't worry about it so much anymore but it can be annoying, although it is amusing to watch sometimes.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I had a dog that would lick and bite her legs raw. The vet said there was nothing wrong with her. She was just OCD about it. We figured she did it when she was bored. It was very annoying though and we had to constantly yell at her to stop doing it because she was giving herself a rash. She passed away 3 years ago and we adopted my current dog shortly after. Except now we forget that my current doggy doesn't have OCD about licking and she is really just cleaning herself. Oh well, she doesn't hold a grudge and just goes outside to freely clean herself.

 

[monkeyboy]

because they can?

 

[ugadog99]

Our elderly dachshund licks the bed, her paws, and even us constantly-at times. There seems to be no pattern to her licking, either. We did a little research on it and decided it is just her OCD habit.

 

[disneyfreakk]

COuld be nausea or itching...when my Winnie has an itchy butt from her tail being too tight, she licks the air. I'd check with vet to be safe.

Have you had her anal glands cleaned? Havent ever heard of a tail being to tight, but the gland thing is uncomfortable for them. We have to have our pugs glands cleaned once a month. The vet charges $10 to do this.

 

[cryssi]

Shenzi licks the couch, blankets, random spots on the floor, carpet, our feet, etc. I hate when she licks the couch and blankets...why??? Gigantic wet spots on the couch! ugh.

She is also obsessed with giving DH a "bath"...she licks him all over his head while he's watching TV (gross!). She gets all psycho about it, it's kind of funny (but gross! I'd never let her do that to me...)

 

[I Love Pluto]

One of our dogs licks our couch whenever we spray Febreeze on it.

 

[james'mommy]

My Rottie used to lick the floor when his tummy hurt. He had a lot of food allergies and his tummy always hurt no matter what expensive allergenic food we tried. The vet said to give him a pepcid daily to help control the stomach acid and that helped with the licking. He also licked and chewed his paws raw. So we had to give him benadryl daily to stop the itching and therefore stop the paw licking.