Does anybody have a dog that does this?

[daisybee]

I have a shihtzu mix. He is only two years old and pretty active, but he has a habit that I don't know if it's anything I should worry about or not. He will be playing and all of a sudden he just stops and starting licking his nose, he'll keep doing this for about 5 minutes, and then he's fine. Is this anything to worry about? Any comments are welcome.

[angelchampy]

I never had one to keep licking its nose, but mine would get into her stages and lick the floor. There would be nothing there, nothing dropped. Still to this day don't know why. So if there's a licking thing that goes for both of these problems, maybe somebody out there can help the both of us.

[agilityk9trainer]

I don't know if this is truly either of your problems, but I have had two instances of something similar.

First, my mom's dog started chewing the carpet one night. She wouldn't stop. It was as if she was driven to it. My mom was concerned and took her to the emergency clinic where they found nothing wrong with her. It happened again several times. We were putting it off as some sort of obsessive compuslive disorder when we finally were able to put two and two together. When my mom's dog get's an upset stomach, she chews the carpet. We decided she felt it was similar to grass, and it would calm her stomach. We now give her medicine when she starts chewing the carpet, and the behavior goes away.

Second, my American Eskimo began licking the air and her nose during training. I was baffled. It went on for weeks. We would be training, and suddenly she would lick and lick and lick and then stop. I was quite confused, but decided to ignore it. At that time, I was using pieces of cheese sticks as treats for her. She loved them, and I was able to put them in my mouth and spit them at her to get that beautiful heel people go for in obedience (don't be disgusted...it's an old competiton obedience training trick. ). Anyway, finally one day she began vomiting up the cheese. It turned out she had developed a food allergy to dairy products, and the cheese was making her nauseous. The licking was her attempt to calm her stomach and keep herself from throwing up.

You might want to ask your vet about this. It could also be a bit of an obsessive/compulsive behavior that you don't need to worry about.

[applesmom]

Sorry, someone has to ask the obvious.

Have you already checked his nose thoroughly inside and out to rule out any possibility of a foreign object, scratch or other irritation and/or drainage?

[angelchampy]

Y'know, that makes sense about the sickly stomach feeling. My girl didn't do it very often, but I'll have to think back now if she had an upset stomach at the time. That's something to pay attention to for next time.

The rug makes sense too. However, when my Sherry got older, she chewed the rug out of boredom and separation anxiety when she was alone. That was different. She only chewed the rug when she was older. I also think she had CCD (Canine Cognitive Disorder). That's the equivalent to human's alzheimers or dementia. Her behaviorist and I talked about it and all the symptoms were there. Sometimes she would lay down in front of me, stare at me, and start pulling on the threads of the rug. That surely wasn't boredom or anxiety. I was right there with her. She didn't even realize she was doing it. But your dog is a baby yet.

Applesmom has a point too, did you check the nose? You know how we keep figiting with our teeth when we have food stuck there? You never know.