Licking Lips Often

[sam pearson]

Hi Wise Dog Owners,

I was unsure where to put my post - mods please move if this is the wrong spot.

I was wondering about my lovely and very much loved English Staffy, Audrey. A bit of background...

She is a rescue dog we have had for 6 months and she stopped growing bigger and stopped hoovering massive amounts of food 3 months ago so we guess she is just over 2 years old. This is my first question. What do you think? Would this be a good guesstimat of her age based on her growing ceasing?.

She was severely abused - was terrified and would cower and urinate if you held a broom or stick and she was afraid of chains and the sound of chains - now she has learned she doesn't need to fear these items.

She was found in a terrible state - starving and severely underweight, flea ridden, literally covered in dog bites, both eyes badly infected, dry nose, skin irritation - she is now very healthy with clear eyes, wet nose, lovely coat and skin, has grown to be 2kg above the average range for a female Staffy and is relaxed and confident.

She is, like all Staffies, a human contact loving dog. We are home a lot (I homeschool the children and work from home) so she is not lacking attention. Although she is not walked every day (twice a week) she has a very big garden to hoon around in and plays with the kids running around and they do obstacle courses with her so she is not lacking excersice.

She eats well - BARF.

However, she has one behaviour we would like to remedy and another that I am not sure is normal.

The first problem is that she wimpers and pulls at her leash if she is tied up anywhere. At home if put outside or in another part of the house (tied up or not) she will be a bit distressed and will wimper and try to get our attention by walking on her hind legs past the window (this is very funny to us but not for her obviously), and scratching at the door. She will, however, eventually give up and lay down and chill out. I feel that if I keep doing it regularly she will eventually be okay about it and I think this is pretty normal behaviour for a very people person dog who likes to be with the pack. However, if we go into a shop, or if I am at the park and I tie her up outside the playground even if she can see us she is frantic, leaping up trying to break her leash, making her harness chaff her and wimpering becomes crying becomes full blown barking to the point where she will start to loose her voice. I want to take her places but in order to do that at times I need to tie her up for short periods. It was so intense the last time that we had to leave and go home - she was disturbing everybody at the park. I would like to hear ideas about how I can get her used to being tied up in public and calmly waiting for us as accompanying us out is one of her pleasures and I am leaving her home most of the time now because of this issue.

The second question I had was about her licking her lips. She does this a lot. When she does it it seems to me to be compulsive but maybe it's normal. I watched a tv show where a trainer was pointing out that a horse had started licking her lips which indicated to him that she had moved from a tense state to a relaxed one. I notice that she seems to do this mainly when she is very excited or very relaxed. She will do it heaps when greeting a family member home or when getting her harness on for a walk. She will lick her lips 20 or 30 times in a row. It seems to be she can hardly contain her excitement and this causes her to lick her lips. She will also do it when she is relaxing e.g. when she first lays down to go to sleep - very annoying when we all hop into bed and she gets into her position which is at the foot of the bed and she licks her lips for up to 5 minutes. Eventually, she falls to sleep but why does she do this? Is it normal? Or should I be looking into the cause? My other dogs have never done this. She is a very quiet dog - rarely barks, never grunts etc. Is this just a way of her communicating both excitement and relaxation?

Thanks in advance.

[CrazyCresties]

Hi Sam and welcome to DOL It sounds like you've done a great job already with Audrey I'd suggest you try posting this in the Training or General section - more people may see it there and give you some help. I'll leave any suggestions to the behavioural experts out there

Edited October 28, 2010 by CrazyCresties

[persephone]

Welcome!

How does she lick .. like she is 'cleaning her lips'..around her mouth.. straight out & back in the front, or ???

Licking lips can be anxiety related, also nausea related .... It is almost impossible to tell this on the other side of teh screen tho

[sam pearson]

Licking lips can be anxiety related, also nausea related .... It is almost impossible to tell this on the other side of teh screen tho

Hi,

Thanks for the welcome.

Yes, these two things were exactly what I was concerned about so I thought I'd better head here before getting worried in case it was a Staffy thing or just a "some dogs are like that" kind of thing.

I don't feel like she is generally anxious but she is desperate to please and a softie so if she gets told off even gently she will do it a lot then and at those times I feel it is anxiety related but she does it ather times also so that didn't quite fit.

I feel that it is just a behaviour she has when in any high emotional state - nervous, exited and perhaps she is just so happy to be hoping in bed with us which is why she does it then - it does make her really happy.

But last night in bed I noticed a few times she made a little hiccup motion - not any sound but a very slight jerk - and it occurred to me that my husband does this sometimes whe he has indigestion. We go to bed a number of hours after she has her dinner and no other signs of nausea - no vomitting aside from when she had some avacado once, normal poops. Perhaps I should look at something in her diet.

I've never noticed anohther dog doing this.

I will post it in the other section also. Thanks for that tip.

[persephone]

She could also have something 'mechanically' amiss in her throat .. so she feels as if there is somethuing there..or it makes her feel slightly nauseous? have you asked your vet?

[Stitch]

Regarding the licking, my oldest girl used to do that, she would sit there and just lick into the air out the front of her mouth.

I had heard that this could be a sign of pain so I took her to several vets who said they couldn't find anything wrong with her.

I did not give up though, as she had always had a sensitive stomach and I suspected that her upset stomach was a little more serious than what I was led to believe.

At the same time I asked the vets about her teeth which were discoloured at the front - the vets said they were OK and not to bother about them.

Again, I didn't think this was the right answer so I took her to a dental specialist who cleaned her teeth and had to extract the two bottom front teeth as they were very loose.

This combined with a change of diet to Hills I/D then progressing to Hills Sensitive Stomach meant a change of life for her.

She no longer licks and is a very happy girl!

Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to come up with the right solution for your dog!

[sam pearson]

Regarding the licking, my oldest girl used to do that, she would sit there and just lick into the air out the front of her mouth.

I had heard that this could be a sign of pain

Yes, it's air licking she is doing. Thank you. I will perservere and look for a reason.

We don't have a vet as we have just moved to the area. I'll look for both a good local vet and a dog dentist.

[Gayle.]

Benson licks his lips a lot....tongue straight out in front then back in his mouth like a lizard.....over and over. Benson is very loved and has been since the day he was born. He came from an excellent breeder who completely adores her puppies and raises then indoors and gives them the best start in life possible. We got him at 11 weeks of age and he has a wonderful life with us. He's never experienced deliberately inflicted pain, never known cruelty.

He's a big happy, friendly boy. The lip licking manifested gradually, it seems to happen when he is super excited or very happy about something, and I've kind of put it down to us teaching him he's not allowed to jump on people in his excitement. He seems to need a way to express his happiness so he licks his lips instead.

I can make it happen instantly by scratching his back near his tail, but he also does it when we get home from work, when he's let inside for his dinner, when I go outside to play with him etc. etc. Times when he would like to jump on me but can't because he's not allowed to.