# why does my chihuahua lick himself so much?



## pthomas (Sep 14, 2005)

My dog, he's about 2.5 years old, licks himself every night, beginning at about the same time, for 3 or 4 hours straight. Does anybody know why he does this? He's neutered and we don't have any other pets. We walk him every day for about an hour, oftentimes in the early evening. H'es been doing this for the past few weeks. Does anybody else's chihuahua do this? Thanks for your help.


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## Kari (May 13, 2004)

I'm not sure why he does this really. Dogs can be very strange at times. :lol: Mine don't do that at all but Buster likes to 'clean' Mr. Peepers area alot. :roll: :roll:

BTW, I had to edit your post because of the sensitive word you used. :wink:


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## Ms_P (Apr 25, 2004)

Could be compulsive licking.
As long as he's not licking sores on himself, he should be ok. You might want to try to get him interested in something else when he starts licking. Give him something to chew on or play with.


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## luv4mygirls (Feb 20, 2005)

maybe a kong filled with cheese or soemthing would be good when he starts to lick.... he may have obsession compulsive disorder (yes, animals can get it) if he is causing hot spots then it's a problem, if it's taking over him doing other activities then it's a problem. you might need to try a spray like bitter apple but i watn you some dogs love the taste of that stuff lol.


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## Yoshismom (Jul 6, 2005)

*licking*

My Yorkie "God rest his soul" used to do this, he seemed to always clean himself like a cat. He had long hair so I figured he was just grooming himself.


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## Nine (Mar 29, 2005)

Chis are such funny critters. Milo and Simba (cat) take turns grooming each other. Its the funniest thing I have ever seen! Simba will put his paw on Milos head and gently push down till Milo rolls over and Milo will just lay down next to Simba and start grooming him. I think Milo thinks he is a cat and Simba thinks he is a chi. Simba does the same thing with Roxanne, the neighbor ladys chi. I would say that it is probably ok for your chi to do this as long as they are not showing signs of skin problems. 

Nine - Mommy to Milo


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## Cooper (Jun 15, 2005)

Cooper is a compulsive licker but he doesn't lick himself... he licks ME. I've tried to break him of it but have been unsucessful with the exception of training him to stop when he hears "that's enough". He'll stop for 10 seconds then resumes the licking party.

Did anything in the house change before he started licking himself? Changing his food, cleaning products you use in the house, your shampoo, his shampoo ... anything like that can cause anxiety that would lead to behavior like that. My cat has an anxiety problem and will "cover up" things - imaginary and not - when something changes in our house.

Also, have you checked him for fleas? That could be it. Or a skin irritation. You might want to give him a bath using an oatmeal shampoo and see if that makes a difference. If it does, you would probably want to go to the vet and see if there's a skin irritation causing the licking.

Or he could be just a crazy chi licking machine. Redirecting him is your best bet but I don't know how well that will work... it doesn't work on mine :lol:


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## pthomas (Sep 14, 2005)

*Clarification on my original question*

I just want to clarify that my original post didn't say he "licks himself." I appreciate the responses I've gotten in response to my question, but many of them miss the point because my dog doesn't just lick himself anywhere. For several hours every night, beginning at about the same time, he licks his "private parts." I hope this is more appropriate for a "mature" discussion. This is a serious question that I would like a response to. Should I be worried about him? Does anybody have any idea why he might be doing this? His behavior seems excessive. Thank you again for your help.


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## Rachael Polachek (Feb 19, 2005)

I think 3 or 4 hours straight is excessive. It seems to me he's going to be causing himself some problems if he's licking in the same area all the time. What does your vet say?


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## luv4mygirls (Feb 20, 2005)

*Re: Clarification on my original question*



pthomas said:


> I just want to clarify that my original post didn't say he "licks himself." I appreciate the responses I've gotten in response to my question, but many of them miss the point because my dog doesn't just lick himself anywhere. For several hours every night, beginning at about the same time, he licks his "private parts." I hope this is more appropriate for a "mature" discussion. This is a serious question that I would like a response to. Should I be worried about him? Does anybody have any idea why he might be doing this? His behavior seems excessive. Thank you again for your help.



have you ruled out urinary tract infection? is there discharge? if you pull back the skin is it dirty, irritated, anything out of the ordinary? if everything looks ok and you ahve been to a vet to rule out any possible health issues then my first advice stands no matter where he is licking. try to redirect him cause if he is healthy then he has obsessive compulsive disorder. if he isn't harming himself then there is no need to worry, but if there is a problem resulting from it then you might want to talk to your vet about using something like clomicalm. i used that with my german short hair pointer and it helped a lot with her ocd. but the drug doesn't work on it's own you have to work with it to retrain him.


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## pthomas (Sep 14, 2005)

Thanks again for your help. Everything looks okay as far as the skin goes. He's clean, there's no discharge, and he doesn't have fleas. He was at the vet 2 months ago and the vet said he was healthy. There haven't been any changes around the house since he started doing this. Of course, he's always done it, but not on such a regular schedule, and not for such a long, non-stop period of time every night. We'll keep an eye on him, and when we go to the vet again we'll ask. If the vet says anything interesting I'll post it here on the board in case anybody else has this problem. I looked all over the internet and I wasn't able to find any other mention of this. I was thinking maybe he's just bored or has too much energy or something, but as I said before we take him out for a long walk everyday, and when we give him a chance to go out at night oftentimes he doesn't want to go, and we play with him a lot in the evening, but recently he's just been wandering off to be by himself and do his thing. Anyway, thanks again for your help. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.


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## luv4mygirls (Feb 20, 2005)

hows his pee? can you tell if it's real dark? has a bad odor? more frequent? anything? you might want to do a urine catch and take it in for a urinalysis to rule out a uti.


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## Alisha (Mar 11, 2005)

Maybe he just likes the way it feels  I'm not trying to be funny. Poco is a licking machine too but mostly with his Daddy he'll lick his face forever if he lets him.


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## JOLIE'SMOM (Jul 15, 2005)

I would take him to the vet to rule out a urinary or other problem. A clean bill of health 2 months ago doesn't mean he hasn't developed a problem now. My experience has been that an extreme behavior indicates a problem that is drawing their attention to this.


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