How do you stop excessive licking?

[Bernice Parrott]

Our Goldendoodle Rufus is an excessive licker who licks everything in sight!!  He licks the floors, arms and legs of my husband and I, our other Goldendoodle's ears and he constantly licks his legs and chews his hair. He will be two in mid-June and so far he's had two large hair balls!!

Is there any known way to minimize this continual licking habit?  Our other dog, Abby occasionally licks her paws, but has never licked to such an extent as Rufus.  Any suggestions please?  Thanks.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

If you find out-please share with us! Myla is also over 2 and she is known for licking everyone and everything, we have to pry her off of us!!!

[Adina P]

I'm not sure how to stop excessive licking of non-humans, but we just always correct for licking US.  If she licks my hand, I push it back into her snout to make it less pleasant.  It's a really hard thing to correct because PART of licking is appeasement. So if your correction is seen as anything more than a reflexive action consequence then they want to lick you more in 'apology' so it can create a catch-22.  Definitely don't give eye contact or much verbal response to licking...if you don't feel comfortable correcting then remove yourself so they can't lick and give a verbal "uh uh" or something.  It's a tough one though...with Thule we were able to get her to stop but we could never get her to NOT start.

[Bernice Parrott]

I emailed my breeder and she told me to try a different brand of food, as he may be allergic to the ingredients of his regular brand.  She said that if the first ingredients are chicken and corn then that could be the problem as many dogs can't tolerate grains.  Guess what the first two ingredients were?  She recommended trying a brand with fish and oatmeal.  We went to "Petsmart" and saw that the "Blue  Buffalo" brand has fish and oatmeal.  However, it was out of stock, so we bought a large bag of the fish and sweet potato to try and will mix that in for the next three weeks.  Hopefully, once they are eating it regularly it will help the sensitivity and hot spots and will cut down on his licking himself so much and chewing his fur.

The licking of us , we can deal with by just ignoring him or saying, "Leave it!"

 

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

One of the top five most common food allergens, the others being corn, wheat, beef, and soy.

However, it has nothing to do with the chicken and the corn being together in the formula. One or the other might be causing a problem, but even that is doubtful.