Pet Information > ASK Experts > Dogs > Dog Training > Licking/ Sniffing

Licking/ Sniffing

18 18:01:17

Question
I have a 2 yr old Chessie male who has for the last yr licks the pea of my
roommates female lab, and now our 7 mo old female Chessies.  Over the past
year its gotten worse where he continues to do so until he foams at the
mouth.  On the same note he will not stop licking them when they come into
the house and does so until again begins to foam at the mouth.  

He has in the past few weeks began sniffing where the female dogs lay and
then begins to lick the area until he is salivating so bad that it makes
everything soaking wet.  

We have tried everything we can think of to make him stop.  And spoke to his
doctor and tried the aggressive steps necessary to stop him as suggested but
nothing seems to be working.  

There has to be something we can do to stop this behavior.  The 7 mo old is
not fixed yet but the female lab is and the male 2 yr old is not fixed. We don't
want to fix him yet and I am personally convinced that there has to be
something we can do to stop him as it appears that it doesn't matter if they
are fixed or not and I think there is.  The steps that we have taken are not
working and are making him aggressive and we are worried this behavior is
only going to escalate.  

Please help us or direct us to someone who can.  

Thank you for your time and attention to our concerns.

Answer
First of all your intact dogs need to be spayed/neutered,unless you are raising show dogs to breed and show they should be fixed. There are numrous health prblems that can come frorm being intact aside from the fact that you could end up with a litter of unwanted puppies. The 2 yo can and will breed with ANY intact female he comes across in heat,it won't matter if it is a different breed or a housemate and serious complications can occur with breeding if you don't know what you are doing,you cannot just let dogs go at it on their own. There are 7 million homeless dogs in the united states,3-4 million shelter dogs are euthanized because there are not enough homes for all these dogs and if your dog is not neutered he can contribute to the overpopulation proroblem. Second,make sure this dog is getting plenty of exercise,other than being intact alot of behavior problems are caused by lack of exercise,he is a working breed dog so he needs lots of mental and physical stimulation-AT LEAST Two walks per day.neutering him and giving him plenty of exercise will help him calm down and maybe even make him too tired to obsess on licking. This sounds like a form of OCD and mabe something to get attention,you need to try and interrupt the behavior at the start,when he STARTS to lick or sniff obssesively clap your hands and loudly say  something like bup bup and when he stops,turn walk away and praise him if he follows you. I am simply going off of the info you have given me about the problem and a case I saw another trainer deal with once when I use this diagnosis. Everyone must do this consistently and if you see no improvement after a few weeks of CONSISTENT work and exercise you need to consult with a trainer/behaviorist near you to deal with this in person. This has been going on for awhile so it will take time to stop the behavior completely,you must be consistent and not give up. You can find trainers using online trainer searches on the APDT,CCPDT,ABTA and Animal Behaivor College websites.