My dog doesn't lick people

hi all,
has anyone ever come across this before, we adopted a alsation staffie cross when he was 10 months old, he is now 3 years old, and in all that time, he has never licked anyones face,he will lick the back of my hand from time to time, but never my face, i know some will say you lucky thing no slopper washes. i'm not complaining, its just that i'v never known a dog that didn't do it. anyone any insight into why this might be.
lynn

Hi

my f-in-law stopped his dogs from licking faces when i had my daughter and she had ended up with worms after he had licked her face, the vet said the dog could have passed them over and in the end the dog would only ever lick your hand


Rachel x

hi rachel,
we haven't trained hooch not to do this, i wonder if his previous owners did? if so its the only thing they did in the way of any training.

My daughter and I both had GSP males, now deceased, completely different breeding, neither of them licked hands or face........my latest dog, Skylar, Weimaraner, doesn't lick either. My Dobe and my Vizsla do on the odd occasion but not often. On the other hand, little Teddy, would lick all the time of you let him, face only though, he never licks hands.

my f-in-law..or should i say ex f-in-law didn't train his dogs much either, he said he only stopped him licking faces cos my daughter was being made poorly, his dogs were more trophies and that broke my heart

Rachel x

My 3 boys (Irish Setters) do not tend to lick faces. Duke - eldest one - has a thing for feet though & if I go around barefoot and go near him I sometimes get licked feet and it tickles!!

hooch doesn't do feet either lol, the only thing he licks alot of is himself down there. ewwwww

lynnn

Wish my dog didnt like my face. Count yourself lucky lol.

LUCKY!

Our Huskies ONLY go for your face!!!! very very slobbery....!

i can remember my dad comin home after koda had just had his dinner - all lovely n slobbery wet muzzle....dad walks in, koda goes barmy runs up, dad (didnt no he had just been fed) picked him up n koda started licking him like mad

Only after he had put him down, he was like "my face is all dry n crusty n it stinks!!!!"





i was (needless to say!) in hysterics!!!!!

Hi Lynn I will have a go at speculating why this might be..
...as your dog is a rescue you are probably unaware of the kind of start he had in life. I think the fact your dog doesn't lick much may be connected to his first few formative months.

A puppy's first experience of licking comes from the dam who licks to stimulate and clean the puppy. When licking a puppy's face the bitch is putting her scent on the puppy and laying a scent trail to her teats. The puppy then licks the teats which helps to stimulate the flow of milk.

As puppies are weaned on to solid food the bitches milk starts to dry up and in an attempt to get the bitch to produce food for them puppies will lick a bitches mouth to stimulate her to regurgitate chewed up partially digested food. So all in all licking is an important part of a puppy's first months

As puppies grow up licking becomes part of the grooming process among the litter mate, I guess it has a satisfying and calming effect.

As the puppies leave the litter and go to homes the human takes on the role of food provider in place of the dam. If well treated puppies soon bond to humans and learn to trust them and there is a continuation of litter behaviour and this includes licking.

Perhaps your rescue puppy didn't have a very good dam or was separated from her when very small so didn't get licked very much. Maybe it didn't go to a home where there was a human to trust, a food provider to be licked and appeased .

I think dogs also lick other parts of the human body because there is a slight taste of salt in human perspiration and they find this enjoyable