What Is With My Dog’s Obsessive Licking?
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
I have two dogs, a female Papillon and a male Yorkie. Both have great behavior. They listen, they are house trained, and there is no aggression.
That is, until the morning. I’m not a fan of dog slobber, so I often don’t let them lick very much. But a few mornings I wanted to see what would happen. When I wake up, my Papillon loves to lick my face as if to clean it! If my Yorkie comes over to lick my face, my Papillon will block him, growl, and in some case bare her teeth and nip him. After she drives him to the end of the bed or off the bed, she seems to have the need to re-lick my face!
Why do my dogs do this when it comes to licking my face (and why do they feel the need to lick my face in the morning!)
Related Papillon Training & Care posts:
eww
It’s a basic grooming behavior, probably mixed with a dose of attention-seeking. My parents have a dog who is a major fan of “eye-licks”, she will wake my dad up by licking the corners of his eyes. And his forehead. And his nose. If you think about it this way, the dogs consider you part of their pack. One thing pack members do is help keep each other clean. So it’s probably a very natural behavior, but if it gets annoying, definitely discourage it!
She’s guarding you against the yorkie, you should discourage this behaviour or it may turn to against people etc, you’re in charge not her
Also by the sounds of it the re licking your face again sounds like dominance over YOU
It does occur
Good luck with your dogs
Sweating at night that causes the salty taste on your face. Plus the dog just loves you.
My dog does the same.
Every morning she licks my face.
Im not sure why they do that;
i guess its their way of saying goodmorning[:
They are showing who likes who the best.its a sign of affection.
he wants do be dominant over the other dog or maybe hes competing
for attention.
i like to lick peoples faces “/
I agree with the previous post- it does seem like your papillon is being dominant. And you should definitely check her on that. Try taking pushing her gently off with a stern “SHHHHTTT!” type sound (kinda like “SHH” but with a “t” at the end). Its the sound cesar milan uses on the dog whisperer and with a stern push, it works! My chihuahua used to do the same thing, and now she’ll stop anything she’s doing once she hear’s that “schtt!” and look at me for the ok. Licking is just a typical dog behaviour like tail wagging, barking, burrowing, which can be regulated. I think I heard somewhere licking is a form of communication for them as well.