[vkschoch]

Squeegee has started doing the weirdest thing lately. He has started licking EVERYTHING!! He licks himself, us, the furniture, etc. He sleeps in our bed and last night he woke up in the middle of the night, I guess, and started licking. He must have started licking himself and then moved on to the sheets. When I woke up his legs and paws were wet as was a spot on the sheets about 12 inches in diameter!! When I say wet I mean that when I touched it my hand came back pretty wet. I had to pull the covers up over it and sleep on top of them to stay dry! I spent the next hour trying to keep him from licking things. True to Beagle form he does not respond at all to a firm no, sprays from a water bottle or anything else negative. He just carries on with his licking as though nothing is happening. Anyway, does anyone have any idea why he is doing this or how to stop it?

 

[Jennifer]

Licking, unless it's directed at one thing only like the feet or one object only, is a compulsive disorder. If he was just licking his body you could put it down to an allergy or irritation of some sort. Or if it was just one object it could be an obsession with that object but as it's loads of different things it's a compulsive habit he's started.

Finding the reason is the first step in stopping him doing it. Has anything changed in his normal routine recently that might have caused him stress?. Is he bored, attention seeking or seem depressed? Does he suffer from separation anxiety? OCD in dogs has also been reported to be genetic but I don't know if there is any scientific proof of this.

Distraction rather than any type of reprimand is better. He can't help what he is doing because it's bringing him some kind of comfort like when a baby sucks a dummy.

 

[randyc]

Josie does it sometimes. She'll be under the covers, just licking.

 

[vkschoch]

Thanks for that info, Jennifer. It seems to be ever since he was neutered. He was constantly trying to lick his surgical site and now that that is healed (it's been about 2 weeks) he just licks everything. He does have separation anxiety and always has. We got him from the pound and he has always hated his crate. He seems to be improving a little bit but whenever he realizes we are going to put him in there he starts shaking and drooling excessively. We put lots of toys in there with him as well as a stuffed kong. He howls when he first goes in there but seems to calm down after a while and then is really hyper and howls when we let him out. I don't know about the depression. My husband thinks everything is fine but he's been really mellow since his neutering and sleeps a lot. He doesn't seem to want to play as much... I know that some mellowing is expected after neutering but I thought it was supposed to take a while. I really don't know why he's doing it.

 

[fauxpasta]

Spock is a licker. When he starts doing it, I physically move him or pick him up and start giving him attention, move him to a different part of the bed, or let him outside - just do anything to distract him. He seems to have gotten better, but I'm not sure what, if anything, I did was effective, or whether it was an immature behavior that he's growing out of as he approaches 2 years of age. He also has allergies.

 

[beagletails]

Sam licks the couch and himself. I usually just say Stop it and he does, but then he is only 1/2 beagle. lol

 

[mrsjenlester]

Gunnar licks the couch as well. You can always tell where he has been laying because of the big wet ring. I say stop a few times and then he does. This is a new thing though, this isn't something he did in his younger years.

 

[Brisen]

My previous beagle Molly was a licker...she licked EVERYTHING, walls, furniture, carpet, and especially us. Maggie doesn't lick a lot, but occasionally will lick our arms or legs if she's laying by us.

 

[Kirby-oh]

Natalie licks all the furniture. It's really strange, and she knows she's not supposed to do it. So she's really sneaky about it.

 

[brandyb]

Caesar is obsessed with licking. It's either couch or us. He gets this look in his eyes that I can't explain other than he looks totally focused on licking. Since we got leather furniture a few weeks ago he doesn't lick the couch anymore but he would leave huge puddles on the couch. We just try to distract him and it usually takes a few trys before he forgets about licking the object.

 

[Erin]

Daisy is a licker as well. Although, she also has another problem that we haven't been able to figure out. Her normal licking behavior consists of mostly us or herself, and sometimes the couch. But she usually licks the couch if we've recently sat there eating. So I figure she's probably scouting for crumbs. We have not been able to keep her from licking us however. Sometimes if you distract her or something it helps. I think a lot of it is that she's so high energy and just doesn't get enough exercise. I walk her and Rocky both but I really think she needs MUCH more. So we're working on that!

 

[vkschoch]

Thank you all for your responses. It makes me feel much better to know that he's not the only one who licks everything!!!