Can't stand the licking!

[Shannon]

Hello,
My 7 month old Dobe has a kissing problem. She greets everyone (humans) with licking their hands, face etc... I have been at curbing this habbit since she was a puppy as her licking if left unattended and not curbed leads to mouthing too. I have tried the "no lick" command and hold her mouth closed. That does little go, I have given leash corrections, I have tried to teach her to meet people with her tongue in her mouth by saying no licks before she can touch them. She is very oral like a lab. She is extremely well socialized. She comes to work with me daily to a nursing home. She has completed basic obedience training and excells. However, this licking thing has me stumped. She rarely does it to me, but, everyone else is fair game in her opinion. Many of the nursing home residents find it offensive and many like it. Short of dousing everyone in bitter apple I am at a loss. I do not want to make corrections everytime she meets someone as she may correlate meeting new people with negativity.
Please help if you can.
Thank you,
Shannon

[carrie]

Hi,
She sounds like a sweetheart and you have obviously done a fantastic job of socialising her. Her licking everybody is a natural greeting and shows that she sees everyone as non threatening and higher on the dominance scale than her - perfect. She is happy with her place in life and must be an absolute joy to own.
I would suggest only letting her greet people who are willing to get up and move away as soon as she starts to lick until the problem is overcome. Another trick I have used with labs is to train them to hold a toy when greeting people and then they are unable to lick!!

[dogncatluvr]

Carrie,

This is exactly what I do with my 2 Labs, the 9 y.o. especially. They were always jumping up and licking as pups, and now a toy in the mouth and it's 4-on-the-floor, and no one gets a shower . I reward them by lots of praise of course, and a cuddle.

[Shannon]

Thank you both for your responses. I have not taught her the take it and hold command yet, but, when coincidentally she does have a toy (tennis ball is her favorite) in her mouth, she doesn't lick and it is a nice and appropriate greeting.

It is next to impossible for me to keep only people who will walk a way from her meeting her. She is at work with me and my office is busy, people come and go out of it frequently. When I walk her up and down the halls, the residents beg for her to come see them, many of these people are in wheel chairs and can't manuever a way from her. She brings them such pleasure that I would feel badly about keeping her daily visits from them.

She is a joy to own at times. She is an immature 7 month old puppy and I don't think she will mature until she is 3. She is so smart and quick to catch on and eager to please. Her sire's side is german import with all Schtz II and III titles so, I am sure that is where her very high prey drive came from, it was difficult to curb, sometimes I felt like I had a border collie on my hands and not a dobe. Anything that would move, cats, kids, bikes, 4-wheelers, cars, etc. were all fair game to chase. I would say that 99% of my obsticles have been overcome with this dog, except that licking....LOL, I guess it could be much worse!

I will begin teaching her the take it and hold command and she will meet and greet with a ball or a dumbbell now.

Thank you both for such excellent ideas. I really like this site for postings.

Shannon