Here’s a request from a regular reader:
“I am wondering if you might be able to address the behavior of frequent (sometimes what appears to be incessant) paw licking.
My dog has been doing this for a while now and as a result the underside of her front paws (the area between her large pad and her toes) is red and irritated.
Is this an anxiety/nervous behavior? Is this a medical issue? Is this an allergy or bacterial infection?
I have spoken to my vets who tell me not to worry unless it becomes a real problem in that she creates a sore. I have researched online, I wipe her paws after our walks, I keep her nails trimmed …
She gets exercise and stimulation and enrichment. Her stress levels appear to be low. Her happiness appears to be high.
Her health is excellent (she just had her semi annual check up) so what am i missing and how can I best help her?”
I have some experience of this, because Coco was a paw-licker. It took us a long time to eliminate it.
He would lick between the joints till he made a scald. His feet were pink, and the hair went orange and black from all the licking - looked frightful! You can see his pink paws in this image when he was modelling for the book Let’s Go!
First, as our correspondent was right to do, you need a vet check. Whenever you get a behaviour change you need to check the physical side first. There could be a foreign body or parasite, fungus in the nail bed, a yeast invasion, or an allergic reaction. (In general, don’t use floor-cleaning products that when diluted turn the water cloudy.)
I tried a number of things, and it slowly but surely improved (or didn't, as below). It's important to give a few weeks for each thing to see if it works:
Interrupting and distracting whenever possible - critical!
Washing with clean water after every trip outside
Washing with Hibiscrub solution after every trip outside - helped a bit
Removing chicken from his diet (I picked chicken because raw chicken carcases are what my dogs eat most) - worked for a while
Trying potions: expensive, and no use at all
Covering his feet when indoors, to prevent licking - stopped the scalds developing
Gave him CBD Oil - this seemed to work well
Slowly re-introduced a little chicken once or twice a month
This all took a l-o-o-o-ng time, but it worked. He now has chicken freely, and no CBD drops any more, and his feet are clean and nice!
Here you can see those nice clean feet he was wearing for his next photoshoot - for the book Fetch it!
Just occasionally he'll start nibbling a patch on his leg: saying "Nibbling" stops him - it’s an interrupter. I never use his name for this as keen readers will know that your dog’s name needs to be precious and only associated with good things!
So how much was irritation, and how much it turned into a habit, is difficult to say.
Could it be anxiety? Possibly, but I'd imagine it began as a soothing response to some kind of physical stimulus or need, like thumb-sucking. And it then continued to become a habit.
So if this is an issue for your dog, try some of these ideas and see what happens. Be sure to give several weeks at least with each thing you try, to be able to see what’s working and what’s not. Doing it all at once would be hard work, and give you no data.
And do let us know what worked for you (because something is absolutely going to work - but you need to track it down!).
Remember I’m not a vet, and this is just what worked, eventually, for us!