Why Does Your Dog Lick You?

16/03/2016 - Blog

As every dog owner knows, your pooch loves to lick everything, including your face, hands, legs, arms... Let’s face it, dogs like to lick everything they can get their paws – and tongue – on. You’ve probably wondered why they do this, since you might not be able to discern a pattern or be completely confident of the reasons behind it. As specialists in dog training in Surrey, we understand pet parents might not want to reinforce this behaviour, but we also know how much you want to learn more about your four-legged companion – since understanding canine behaviour is vital to train him. For this reason, you can find here some ideas as to why they’re licking you.  

To Get your Attention As you may have guessed, dogs like to get attention. They’ll wag their tails and send a hopeful look towards their owners, who are usually more than happy to oblige. When they lick you, this is another way for them to express their desire to be petted, talked to or played with so, if your dog won’t stop slobbering all over you, he might be trying to tell you something! You might find that petting him results in even more licking, which just means you’re doing it right.  

They Like the Taste Believe or not, your dog can enjoy the taste of your skin. He might be licking you because you have small food particles they can sense and you can’t, or because they’re enjoying the salt that naturally gathers on your skin. Understandably, this might not be something most dog owners are happy with, so training your dog to stop might be the better option, instead of having to push him away every time he starts.   To Show Affection Dogs have a lot of different ways to say ‘I love you’, and one of them is by licking you. Again, you might want to change this behaviour if you find it too much to handle at times, so you can try ignoring him when he starts doing it. However, dogs release endorphins that make them feel good when they lick you, meaning this is a behaviour that comforts and calms your dog.  

So whenever your pooch starts to lick you, it might be due to one of these reasons. If you wish to make him stop, or at least make this behaviour more manageable, we have puppy training classes you can enrol your dog in, so don’t hesitate to contact us or give us a call on 07739 815 265, and a member of our dedicated team will be more than happy to help with any doggy questions you have. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive our latest news and updates, and head on over to YouTube to watch some of our videos.
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