Televets

• Home
• »
• Pet Questions
• »
• Dogs
• »
• View Question

Licking other dogs genitals

Bailey

Hi, I have a 2 1/2 year old male labrador who is very friendly and loves meeting other dogs but he seems to always greet them by LICKING their genitals. This has caused a couple of dogs to go for him recently which is obviously very worrying. So I was wondering if this way of greeting dogs was normal and friendly and whether it was him or the other dogs causing these attacks? If this isn't normal then is there anything I can do to stop it?

Thanks

• Experienced Advisor Rosie Barclay says:

  April 14th, 2008 at 02:03 PM

  This is quite common as he is gaining a lot of information by smell and taste. Most dogs are happy just to smell but perhaps he is not getting enough information by just smelling alone or he is just still re-acting immaturely (he should grow out of this).

  The dogs that responded aggressively may just have been saying "sorry can't cope with you there" and have told him off. It is these dogs that will teach your dog that they do not all cope well with this intrusion so eventually he should get the message. It's unlikely that the others dogs will actually give a hard bite its more common for them just to signal their annoyance by using this inhibited bite behaviour.

  If you begin to get cross or punish him then you are in danger of teaching your dog that approaching dogs are bad things as he may not understand that you are only cross with his behaviour. Just that every time he goes to "shake hands" so to speak he gets punished. He may then become quite anxious every time another dog approaches.

  It doesn’t look pleasant to us but we are not dogs and think how you would feel if someone shouted at you every time you greeted someone with a “hello lovely morning?” Just look away and smile and jolly on past with the promise of some tasty treats.

  Hope this helps

   

  Rosie Barclay.

  Current Rating:

  Rate This Answer:

  
  Good Dog? Bad Dog?

  Good Dog? Bad Dog? By Rosie Barclay. This book concentrates on changing the traditional views of how we perceive and treat our dogs using what we have learned from scientific research so far. It starts at the beginning by looking at ways of how to chose and bring up a new puppy that may reduce the likelihood of future problems. It then goes on to cover different problems that commonly occur between owners and their maturing or adult dogs by discussing real case studies. TO BUY VISIT www.rosiebarclay.com