[llapan]

If you do a search on the internet, you'll see that obsessive licking is pretty common for both dogs and cats. There are a variety of reasons ranging from allergies, obsessive compulsive disorder, self soothing, etc.--LOTS of reasons. With respect to my Yorkie, Miss Kitty, my vet thought allergies might be the culprit and suggested daily doses of baby Benadryl to see if that would curb her excessive, almost constant licking--of not only her own body, but also clothes, bedding (leaving huge wet areas on the comforter in the course of one of her nightly "lick fests'"), the floor, leather chairs--basically everything and anything (although her front legs were definitely her favorite place to obsessively lick). Before I started Miss Kitty on the Benadryl, I could temporarily get her to stop her constant and unnerving licking by saying "no licking" (it only took a little while for her to understand that command, as it was my most frequent one for a long time !)--or by distracting her with a toy. BUT, as soon as she felt that I was no longer paying attention, she would go right back to licking--or, after I would ask her to stop, she would move away from me, to get far enough away (on my couch or bed) to where I couldn't see or hear her licking--so that she could resume her licking in peace.

Within a couple of weeks of giving my dog twice daily doses of Benydryl--she stopped licking completely. An amazing transformation!! I eventually thought she was "cured" and stopped giving the Benadryl. Besides baby Benadryl, my vet also suggested I try medicated shampoo and conditioner. The medicated shampoo and conditioner had no effect at all, because I kept using that after stopping the daily Benadryl, yet the licking started back up in pretty short order. Once I resumed the Benadryl dosing--same thing happened as before: within a couple of weeks, Miss Kitty's licking ground to a halt again. And to cement my conclusion that it WAS the Benadryl that stopped the obsessive licking--a year or so ago, I ran out of Benadryl, and kept forgetting to buy it. Before long, the hard core licking started back up. (Miss Kitty still licks some, but only about 5% of what she would do unmedicated.) Using trial and error, I have also noticed she does better (less licking) if I dose her twice a day. I'm not sure if that's because my doses were too small when I tried the once a day schedule (I didnt give her any more per dose) OR if the dose size was okay but the effects of the Benadryl simply wear off in 12 hours, no matter what the dose. And for people who say I shouldn't keep Miss Kitty on Benadryl full time--the alternative was going to eventually be that she licked her poor little paws to bloody stumps. So, i choose Benadryl, at least for now. Concerning dose amounts-it would vary, depending on size of your dog. Mine is 2 yrs. old and weighs about 3.5 lbs. Her dose is pretty tiny. Your vet could tell you the proper dosing. Hope this helps.