licking random things

[Pepper(Hot Stepper)]

For the last few days Pepper has started licking random things e.g. the waterproof mattress in her crate, the brick wall in the bedroom, etc...
Should I be worried about this and stopping her?
I also find that she doesn't seem to drink that much water. She seems like she's ok overall health wise but the licking thing is bothering me slightly. Why is she doing it?

[Ian]

The licking might be an enhancement to smelling. Sean doesn't lick round the house, well not that I've seen, but when we're out after smelling something he often tries to lick it. I usually try to stop him or catch it before it reaches the licking stage. There some writing about it here:

canidaepetfood.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/why-do-dogs-lick-everything.html

One of the things mentioned in the above article is the possibility of being a bit bored, you might be able to test that out by getting Pepper some toys if she hasn't got any to see if she'll play with them.

[Pepper(Hot Stepper)]

Thanks for the article. She does have toys just doesn't seem interested in them. I also thin I take her out enough because in fact a lot of the time she doesn't want to go out or if we're out, as soon as she's done her business she'll start pulling towards the direction of home! I'll see how it progresses...

[Ian]

Dec 9, 2012 20:48:13 GMT Pepper(Hot Stepper) said:

Thanks for the article. She does have toys just doesn't seem interested in them. I also thin I take her out enough because in fact a lot of the time she doesn't want to go out or if we're out, as soon as she's done her business she'll start pulling towards the direction of home! I'll see how it progresses...

You might need to do some work with her to get her to understand what the toys are for, don't forget that toys are not something Greyhounds would ordinarily be given in a kennel environment so they don't necessarily understand what they're for. Sean will play with toys but it's very short lived, his attention span for them is incredibly short.

One thing that might also help with this which was mentioned as an answer to another question you posed is to place one or two items of you old clothes with her, making sure your smell is on the clothing. This may bring comfort to her if the licking is being caused by a bit of anxiety.

[prince]

prince some times licks when we are out, i think it is a dog thing as my other dogs did it aswell. As for toys prince never played with them at first so we use to teach him to play. now he plays with it by himself or if baby comes round he gets her to play with him aswell.the best toy we have that he loves is called a kong squiggle from ebay resonably priced and a lot of fun.

[nicky]

Greyhounds are funny dogs. I know of one who likes to lick walls . Betty doesn't drink alot. She never has done. I put quite a bit of liquid in her dinner to compensate. As for toys, she has always liked soft ones. She won't go near a ball or anything hard!!! She took a liking to my daughter's slippers - the soft fleecy type - and would try and take them off her feet! In the end my daughter gave them to her . It did take her a while to get the hang of playing with any toys. At first she just collected them on her bed but now she will throw them around and chase them and will rush to get one when one of us comes home .