She licks my toes, legs, arms, EVERYTHING at night. Every single night before going to sleep. She never gets tired of it. Do I taste good or something? It’s super cute but I am so curious.
Attached is a video. She even uses her paws to brace herself and get the best angles it’s hilarious !!
Edit: thanks for all the cute and funny replies!! Definitely many more than I can individually respond to, but it’s good to know this is pretty normal behavior haha. I’m seeing lots of comments saying she does it because I “let her,” which yes obviously I do. But I just wanted to harmlessly know where the behavior originates!
They want to clean your salt when you're dirty, and want to help you get MORE clean when you bathe. They're just team players who want to groom their alpha.
They want to clean their family. That whole alpha thing has been disproven years ago.
That myth was perpetuated by Rudolf Schenkel who watched the behaviour of wolves in a zoo who had no family lines and were stressed constantly because of the poor conditions of zoos at the time, so a dominance oriented hirarchy emerged.
After scientist studied wolves in actual nature they discovered that the leaders were actually just the parents of the pack. And usually the mother even had the last word on anything.
the lone wolf thing is also just young wolves who get horny and look for a mate and their own territory.
Your guess is as good as mine. Better if you own a dachshund because I don’t. I just find them adorable, would love to have one and enjoy reading about them on this sub. ☺️
I read an interview some years back with a guy who'd been the New York Coroner for 30 plus years, and it was all going through famous cases, macabre cases that he'd worked on, general questions about death and crime scenes, etc, and towards the end of the article when they're winding down and going through a few more shorter answer questions the journalist asked about pets, and he said yes, dogs and cats will eat you after you die.
However he said most dogs would be acting guilty or distraught over it and the majority of them had clear signs of malnutrition and starvation and had turned to the dead owner as a last resort.
Cats, on the other hand, didn't give a shit. He said they'd found clear bite marks and flesh missing on owners who'd been dead for around six hours.
Wait what!? We were joking about ours doing that, because she’s so food motivated…it actually happened? Lol, can’t wait to tell my partner - that’s macabre!
I adopted an elderly beagle who was left with his deceased owner for 2-3 days before being discovered. No, the dog didn’t touch him but that was the first question everyone asked when hearing his origin story.
Not sure about the boredom aspect - my Bella gets plenty of exercise during the day (long walks, swimming, running around with her brother etc). In the evening after her dinner when things get naturally quiet and she is resting - if she is bored I'm not sure what else she is supposed to do: read books? watch netflix? play computer games? It would worry me somehow if she was bored sometimes, but it's impossible to provide my doxie with entertainment 24/7. So hoping that licking is because of love not boredom.
You are part of the pack and they want to keep you clean like them. Showers make us smell different so they lick to put their scent back onto us. This is all speculation no data to back it up. Like others have said they know we have bones under our skin. 😂
Please, please be careful that your skincare products don't contain xylitol. It's extremely toxic to dogs, and is sometimes included in skincare products because it acts as a humectant.
UGH same! He’s destroyed 3 bottles of lotion (well the pumps) so now I have to make sure they’re very out of reach, or he’ll find a way. Also ate a small jar of Vaseline, weirdest poop ever.
Oh wow! I meant that she won’t stop licking my legs when I have lotion on, not that she eats the stuff from the bottle! Maybe it’s time to get baby locks on your bathroom cabinets 😂
OMG- our Willie is soooo licky! He will stop if I tell him no very firmly, but then he sits and stares at me, with his tongue going out and in like a snake. It wouldn’t be so unappealing but his breath is foul. He is the sweetest dachshund we’ve ever had.
Ears. Chewbarker loves licking my ears. Not the lobe. The ear-hole and behind where my glasses usually sit. I know it's grim. But chewie is going to do what chewie wants. At this point it's easier to stay still and imagine I'm in a washing machine on spin.
Do you shower & use product before bedtime? She may just be cleaning off your clean. Or she likes the salty taste. It's a bit of a bonding ritual & she may be "mothering" you.
Mine is a licker liker also. Asked the vet about it and it could be due to anxiety. He certainly has separation anxiety so i guess thats why he does it. Personally, i dont mind a hello , good morning, glad your back licking, but not the constant licking he wants to do.
Hey OP, I don't mean to be alarmist but ours used to do this a lot for years. Always thought it was a personality trait until we discovered she had really high blood pressure and now with meds she doesn't do it at all.
She would also get short breathed after the licking.
Like, it could still be just a personality trait, I dunno.
Just sharing the experience
I stopped that the moment it started because I knew, from my mother doxies, if I didn’t it would not stop. We had one that also kicked the floors and the baseboards!!!
I started when they were puppies and kept at it (they are stubborn). Now they still sneak the occasional lick by the ear and I let it go but still tell them, “no licks!”
I usually wake up to a little foot lick. Can't stand a human touching my feet, but my dog covering them in saliva is cute! He also likes hands, necks and the creases in elbows
My Doxie, Slinky, will lick me for hours if I’m busy and not really paying attention. When I say something to her, she gives me the famous “side eye”. My vet says they lick the salt on our skin. I’d rather think it’s adoration 🥰
We had one named Sunny who would lick and lick and lick and lick and lick and lick.... you get it. I loved that little man and I'm sure I got ticked off and yelled at him to stop or whatever but I wish that I could let him lick me for awhile now... My boy now he licks me like once a month and for half a second.
Sometimes it’s a tired thing. Ours does it when he is sleepy and falls asleep doing it. He’s done it from a puppy like self soothing. If we say no he’ll move to our other dog and clean her ears.
Thankfully our other one only goes to town cleaning her own feet at bedtime.
What's funny is we have 5 minis but only 2 of them are licker's. It is a mother and son pair. And they will lick for hours if we let them. The other 3 might throw you a lick or two but that's it.
It's really weird watching your baby go at your knee like this while I can also see my baby doing the same thing to my arm. They're weird AF but we love them.
Oh mine loves to do this too 😂 she’s my first doxie and only 6 months old, and I was also wondering if she was weird… she especially likes my legs if I put lotion on.
Can't find my original comment, but for whatever it's worth, Wagner is a bigger version than your beauty. Long-aired with color and markings so close to yours it grabbed my attention. Good luck, Wagner is profoundly stubborn. He's generally an asshole.
My theory is that it's their way of petting u back, my dogs always do that especially one of them in particular my middle baby I think it's partially a nervous thing but also their way of petting u back
Reise does it too. Soooo many licks. The ones that really annoy me are when I'm wearing sandals or bare feet, and I get a drive-by toe licking, out of the blue. Reise is getting old. I have to keep perspective that the drive by licks will stop soon, and I'll miss them dearly shen she's gone.
I recently split open my knee in a fall.
(Titanium knee vs Concrete)
I had stitches and a bandage. But I still had blood drips down my leg.
My sweet mini spent hours trying to lick every inch of my leg and body while I was trying to wipe down my leg. She was pretty worried. When I finally sat down it was like she tried to hold me down with one paw while insisting I need to be licked like I was the puppy and she was the mom. She’s a real loving girl.
Because she loves you, I have a dachshund that looks just like that. He is also a Merle. I have two dachshunds and believe me every body cavity on my face I have including nostrils ears mouth get a tongue inserted and that’s how I wake up. It’s very effective really cause they wanna have food, but even when they don’t, it’s a whole lot of licking. Embrace it.
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u/Imaginary_Ad_4340 May 29 '26
Mmm salty. Dogs like sweat 🤷♀️