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Originally Posted by Critter  I am glad others are dealing with this... my Harley is completely obsessed with licking, if you dont allow him to lick he will start crying. If you hide your hand he starts to dig at it till you bring it back out. We feel completely sorry for him because when you give in your can tell he gets totally relaxed by the licking. My DH allows him to do it the most so now I dont know if we can even break him of it, we have had him for 5 years... |
It can be relaxing for them - a kind of displacement behavior such as when humans bite our nails or sit with our legs crossed and kick our foot over and over nervously, smoke one cigarette after the other or pace back and forth when we are nervous and don't really know what to do with ourselves. Of course, not all dogs lick from nerves or stress, some do from boredom, possessiveness, to curry favor and many reasons as research shows. Dogs can't read, take drugs or get busy in a hobby as we can to pass the time or deal with their jumpy times so they invent other ways such as OCD type licking or chasing their tail or barking nonstop for hours.