We have two dogs, Buster (a 10 year old Golden) and Charlie (a 3 year old Lab). Charlie is obsessed with licking everything, including the air to taste aromas when I am cooking. He’ll start at one end of the carpet and lick to the other side, he’ll run to lick our feet when we take our shoes off …it just goes on and on. Charlie has now turned his licking to our 1 year old son, Ned. Charlie will start at the back of Ned’s head and work around to his face and then start all over until we catch him and stop him.

Charlie is a total goof-ball and we love him, but what’s up with the licking???

From: Nancy

Yuck! To me this sounds like no fun at all because personally, I cannot stand a dog the feeling of being licked. Face-licking is something that some people seem to crave, even teaching their dogs to do it and called it a “kiss.” But dogs do not naturally lick each other as part of their normal behavior. What they do lick is their genitals, which is one of the reasons that being licked by a dog appeals to me NOT at all! This is a very good reason to limit Charlie’s tongue-attack on Ned -- which, interestingly you say you stop him from doing. That’s what you need to do about ALL of it. It’s no more complicated than that: do not allow the behavior.

What Charlie has is an obsession -- it’s not cute goofiness, it’s a compulsion, which you need to manage to help him overcome it. Besides being irritating for you to live with, it is emotionally destructive for the dog because instead of living a normal life he has become a fanatic and dogs who are obsessive just get worse and the longer he “practices” this craziness, the more ingrained the habit will become. Also, it is not healthy physically for a dog to lick all over a carpet – carpets are covered with dirt (even if you vacuum) and the fibers are also treated with chemicals, and you may have used chemical rug shampoos or cleaners that are also toxic for him to ingest.
As an example of how a repetitive behavior can get out of hand, there are more than a few Labs who become obsessive-compulsive about tennis balls and the people who live with them are feeding the “addiction” every day. It really saddens me to see how people cannot perceive obsessive behavior as an emotional burden on the dog and the “enable” it (to use a trendy phrase) by throwing a tennis ball for a Lab for hours and then are surprised that he still wants more, wants nothing else in fact. It’s the same with Charlie’s licking. These behaviors are an expression of either pent-up energy, boredom or a fragment of neurotic behavior that has been allowed to blossom. That dog needs a MINIMUM of TWO 30 minute fast walks or better yet, RUNS off the leash, EVERY SINGLE DAY, rain or shine. Labs are high energy working hunting dogs and can go literally crazy when limited in expending that energy.

Once you have “gotten his ya-ya’s out,” keep a short leash on Charlie to drag at all times. The very minute he starts to put his tongue on anything (except his aforementioned genitals!) you will take hold of the hanging leash, give it a gentle tug and in a soft but assertive voice say, “Charlie, No!” This is without emotion of any kind – we don’t want to raise Charlie’s stress level, just stop the tongue. The moment that he stops you will give him a gentle command to “Charlie Sit” and then instantly a small tasty treat. Then drop the leash, walk off like it never happened. There is no anger or frustration in your voice or body language: the message is stop that, do this, eat this, good boy. It may take many times at the beginning but if you see less attempts to lick, keep up with the plan. You are trying to “extinguish” the behavior, a fancy word for “stop the madness!” You might also like to have a “towel burrito” (see The Dog Bible for a description) or other nice chew toy to offer him after the treat as an alternative oral replacement. This isn’t swapping one obsession for another, it’s a “pacifier” to bridge the re-learning period, like nicotine gum for someone trying to stop smoking.

If you have no perceptible effect on how often Charlie tries to lick, then I would suggest putting a muzzle on him and still doing the “Charlie, No!’ and “Charlie Sit!” and then lots of pats and praise. Go on the “Resources” page of DOG TALK to get information about “Happy Muzzles,” a really nice cheerful useful muzzle or an Italian-made basket-style plastic muzzle. They aren’t cruel, they are a tool to speed up the recovery-from-obsession-process. You’ll only be using the muzzle when Charlie is with you in the house and you can keep an eye on him. When you’re not around, you need to have Charlie in a roomy crate or small gated area and leave him a really nice big rawhide bone with knotted ends that he can gnaw on.

Another solution would be to talk to your vet about using one of the dog-safe medications for phobias and anxiety, to help him over the early re-learning period. Hope this gives you all some relief!

Tracie Hotchner